Coach K: Mark Williams' Rebounds Were the Deciding Factor
Duke continued its ACC Tournament run with a 70-56 win over Louisville in the second round. The Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead, built it to as much as 14 in the first half before Louisville stormed back to take the lead just before halftime.
“Well, you know, I think sometimes when people watch games, they forget that two good teams are playing,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “So sometimes one good team can dominate for four minutes the other team, and then the other team dominates. That's what happened in the first half.”
Trailing by one, Matt Hurt hit a three, on his way to 20 points in the game, with seconds left in the half to give the Blue Devils a two-point lead at the break.
“Let me just say the end of the first half Jon Scheyer called a really good play, and we got Matt a three in the corner,” Coach K said. “That was a big play for us. And then in the second half -- we just told our kids at halftime, I thought we out-fought them for 12 minutes, they out-fought us for eight, and we've got to fight for 20 minutes because they're such a good team.”
The message seemed to sink in, because Duke came out of the locker room with a 9-0 run and never looked back, building a lead as large as 17.
Mark Williams scored a game-high 23 points and set an ACC Tournament freshman record with 19 rebounds. It was the second most by any Blue Devil in the tournament and most by a Duke player since 1980.
“Look, Mark was fabulous, not good,” Krzyzewski said. “He only had one rebound yesterday, so he's averaging 10 a game. Just to keep his ego in check. But to get 19 rebounds in a game, and those defensive rebounds in the last eight, ten minutes were the deciding factor in the game, really.”
