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Duke is threatened but never overtaken by Southern Cal.
By BRIAN LANDMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001
PHILADELPHIA -- As Duke freshman guard Chris Duhon was trying to pull on his freshly printed gray championship T-shirt, Shane Battier interrupted him with a congratulatory hug.
Deservedly so.
Duhon had just helped pull one out for the Blue Devils.
Although he had been reluctant to shoot in the NCAA Tournament, he calmly made two uncontested, game-altering three-pointers that carried top-seeded Duke to a 79-69 win over Southern Cal in the East Region final on Saturday night.
"Chris was the closest guy around, so I grabbed him," Battier said. "But I wanted to get him especially because winning a regional championship is very special. ... I wanted to tell him, "Savor this. Enjoy this. A lot of people would pay a lot of money to trade places with you.' "
Oh, yeah, and thanks.
The Blue Devils (33-4), returning to the Final Four for a ninth time since 1986 and 12th time overall to match Kentucky for third most in NCAA history, meet West Region champ and Atlantic Coast Conference rival Maryland on Saturday in Minneapolis.
Though the Maryland-Stanford score was announced before introductions here, the Blue Devils couldn't afford to think about a fourth showdown against the Terrapins.
Not when facing No. 6-seeded USC (24-10), which returned all five starters from a team that battled the Blue Devils to a 13-point loss last season and was enjoying a breakthrough season. This was USC's first Elite Eight appearance since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
"We beat a veteran team that's so well coached; they scared the heck out of me," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
The Trojans had started exceptionally well in their three tournament games, which included taking a 43-24 halftime lead against No. 2-seeded Kentucky on Thursday.
Sophomore guard Jason Williams made sure the Trojans didn't similarly stun the Blue Devils.
He hit six of his first seven shots to help the Blue Devils take a 32-20 lead with 7:50 left in the opening half. But senior forward Brian Scalabrine made back-to-back three-pointers to bring USC to within 43-38 at halftime.
"I felt good," USC coach Henry Bibby said. "Five points is nothing in college basketball. I wasn't really concerned."
He had faith in the game plan, which called for the Trojans to trap Williams and Battier any time they got the ball and force them to pass instead of shoot.
"We felt that two players could beat you on the team and that was Battier and Williams," Bibby said. "You play with statistics. ... So what do you give up? You give up Duhon. You give up (Mike) Dunleavy. You give up (Nate) James. You give up (Carlos) Boozer. Those are the guys that have to beat you."
For a while, it didn't seem as though they would, and Williams and Battier both were struggling. The All-Americans made 5 of 21 shots in the second half.
The Trojans trailed 67-59 after junior forward Sam Clancy hit a short baseline turnaround with 5:49 left, quieting the Duke fans among the 20,270 at the First Union Center.
"They were fighting back; give them a lot of credit," Duhon said. "They didn't quit. They had a little bit of momentum."
"Had" is the operative word.
Williams penetrated into the lane and, when faced with a pair of defenders, kicked the ball outside to an open Duhon, who the Trojan bench had been telling the players wouldn't shoot. After all, he had taken 10 shots in Duke's three previous NCAA Tournament wins.
"The guy who was guarding me kept leaving me and it was like, "I dare you to shoot,' " he said, the net dangling around his neck. "Once I hit that first one down (earlier in the half), a lot of confidence flowed through my blood and my teammates', so they kept kicking it to me and I kept letting them go. ... I didn't think and I think that was the key. I just reacted and played off instincts. When I do that, things go well for me."
Moments later, he took another pass from Williams and hit another three to give him 13 points (11 in the half) and give Duke a commanding 75-64 lead with 3:01 remaining.
"They were tremendous shots," Krzyzewski said.
"By no stretch of the imagination is this a two-person team," Battier added. "We have great, talented players on this team and we have all the confidence in the world in them. We've been very successful at taking what the opponents gives us and tonight they wanted to leave Chris open and Chris showed why he's a spectacular player."