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Duke wins behind Williams' hot hand

Jason Williams scores a career-best 34 and the Blue Devils cruise past UCLA 76-63.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 23, 2001

PHILADELPHIA -- If Duke sophomore guard Jason Williams couldn't sense it, everyone else could. With his team clinging to a three-point lead early in the second half against UCLA and his teammates struggling to find their usually deft shooting touch, folks knew the game rested in his hands.

That wasn't a bad place.

Williams scored 19 straight, matching a career-best 34, as the top-ranked and top-seeded Blue Devils beat UCLA 76-63 Thursday night at the First Union Center.

"I just got open looks," Williams said. "I was just taking my shots, shots that I usually take and they were just going down."

Duke (32-4) meets surprising Southern California in the East Region final at 7 p.m. Saturday. They last met in the 1999 Wooden Classic, an 81-68 Duke win.

"I thought it was an extremely physical game defensively," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It wasn't a pretty game. It was a difficult game to score points."

The No. 4-seeded Bruins (23-9) followed some advice from Magic Johnson, who spoke to them earlier in the week, and took it hard right at the Blue Devils (32-4).

That's one reason Duke hit 9 of 31 shots (29 percent) in the first half. The Bruins, however, were worse -- physically and mentally. They managed to hit 8 of 31 field-goal attempts (25.8 percent).

Aside from that, sophomore forward Jason Kapono picked up his fourth foul with 23.9 seconds left in the half. Duke sophomore center Casey Sanders, the former Tampa Prep star, made both free throws to help Duke take a 33-26 halftime lead.

After falling behind 40-28, Kapono, fouls and all, re-entered and he and senior point guard Earl Watson combined for nine unanswered points to bring the Bruins back.

But that's when Williams took over.

"He's the key guy as far as making plays," Krzyzewski said. "We wanted the ball in his hands and he certainly delivered."

He started by hitting an open three-pointer from the right corner off a feed from sophomore forward Mike Dunleavy, who played despite pinching a nerve in the opening moments and feeling some numbness in his right (shooting) arm.

"It was just an easy assist for me," said Dunleavy, who unselfishly eschewed a three-point attempt to make the extra pass.

Williams followed with an alley-oop layup off a lob from Dunleavy, a driving layup through virtually the entire UCLA defense, two more threes and two free throws for all of Duke's points in a dizzying 15-3 run over a 3:25 span.

He then hit two more driving layups before another Blue Devil scored, senior forward Shane Battier, off an assist by (who else?) Williams. Battier added 24 points and 11 rebounds for Duke, which was buoyed by the return of sophomore center Carlos Boozer from a broken bone in his right foot. Boozer had 4 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals in 22 minutes.

The Bruins (23-9), who had won 19 of 23, including a victory against then No. 1 Stanford in Maples Pavilion, never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Lamented UCLA coach Steve Lavin: "That run that Jason Williams had was probably the difference in the game."

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