Duke Wins Round 1 With Temple, Rematch Next Saturday

What an amazing end-game!  Temple seemed to have everything going their
way in the last three minutes when Duke stormed back from a six point deficit,
scoring  7 straight, and taking the lead.  We hope you had your VCRs
going, well at least for the second half, since ESPN shafted Duke fans on the
first half.

It's a hard game to describe since we didn't get to see the first half and
since Temple so totally frustrated Duke for most of the second.  In fact,
when they had the six point lead we were convinced that they were going to pull
off the upset. Everything was going their way and they were significantly
outhustling Duke. Everything seemed to be going Temple's way.

Then it just changed. Duke poured it on, like a switch just went off.
Ka-boom!

It was one of the most exciting, tension filled Duke games in the Krzyzewski
era, at least at the end. We'd rank it up there with the Notre Dame game in 86,
the UNC game in 95 and the two UConn games.  What a thriller.

Not to say it was perfect. There were a lot of mistakes.  Duhon shot an
airball, Jason threw up a 3 which was really unnecessary, and tossed a pass
right into Temple's hands when they were surging.  But he more than made up
for those with some keen passing, a really clutch 3, and diving on the floor in
what was more or less a scrum, and Duhon got the ball to Boozer at a key point.

One could argue that the game wouldn't have been so close if Duke had played
better defense and been smarter on offense.  There was a lot of clumsiness
for some reason at various points in the game.  But when time came to step
up, Duke did, and did in a big way. This game will do a lot for their
confidence. It will also do a lot for Temple's, and sets the stage for a monster
rematch next weekend.  We're ready! Let's run it back!

Notes - after the game, John Chaney was smiling like he really enjoyed
it...it was that kind of ending where you were happy to be there...it's hard to
understand how big their guys are until you actually see them...they're pretty
huge...Temple is doing a brilliant job of taking care of the ball....Duke forced
11 turnovers, which is very high for Temple this season....