Duke bests Hokies

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Duke was met with its customary road greeting as they walked onto the Cassell Coliseum floor; boos, and lots of them.

The Blue Devils provided their patented answer to those insults; another win.

Freshman Austin Rivers scored 18 points and Ryan Kelly provided 15 of his own off the bench, as No. 5/7 Duke dominated Virginia Tech 75-60 in Atlantic Coast Conference action on Thursday night in front of 9,847 fans and a national audience of ESPN viewers.

Duke (19-3, 6-1) remained in a tie for first place in the ACC with North Carolina and Florida State. The Blue Devils improved to 38-8 all-time against Virginia Tech.

“It was a good game, we have had two really tough days of practice and they responded really, really well,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I thought what they did in practice they did in tonight’s game, and now we have to do that again on Sunday (vs. Miami) to see if we can keep that going. It is a big win. Every conference game is a big win…

“I thought we played well tonight, it was very gratifying.”

Virginia Tech (12-10, 1-6) continues to struggle in ACC play. Once 11-3 this season, the Hokies are 1-7 since then, falling into 11th place in the league, one game ahead of Georgia Tech with visit from Clemson on tap on Saturday at 4 p.m.

It disappoints me and it sounds stupid, but I think we are a good team,” Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. “I didn’t say a great team, I said a good team.

“They are a very good team. They are not a great team, but they are a very good team, and I didn’t like the way we dealt with those mini-setbacks.”

Duke shot the ball like they were the home team, making 50 percent (14-28) in the opening half and 47.4 (27-57) for the game. Four Blue Devils were in double figures, with Mason Plumlee adding 10 points and six rebounds, while Seth Curry — the son of former Virginia Tech star Dell Curry — tossed in 11, including 6-for-6 from the free throw line.

“I was really disappointed in how we deal with adversity, today we didn’t play through adversity at all,” Greenberg said. “I thought we did some good things, we got the ball inside, we had some guys miss some shots and that affected their ability to do anything on the other end.”

Erick Green led Virginia Tech with 17 points, while Victor Davila was a force inside against Plumlee, adding 16 for a club that shot connected on 44.2 percent from the field. Duke extended its streak to nine straight games holding the Hokies to less than 70 points.

Davila was 6-8 from the field, while Plumlee was just 4-10. Davila also had seven boards.

“Davila is good. He just a strong, good player, I think anyone in the league would love to have Davila on their team, especially as a senior,” Krzyzewski said. “He has been through a lot of wars. I like him a lot. He is just a good hard-nosed, clean good player and Mason was up against that and I thought much of (his misses) was Davila’s defense.

Virginia Tech never led in the game. They tied the score at 2-2 and 21-21 in the opening half, but Duke went on a 17-7 run over the final 7:13 to take a 38-28 lead and the Hokies never closed within single digits after the break.

Kelly played a big role during that run, scoring seven of his nine first half points, including a dunk and 3. Quinn Cook hit a 3 to push the lead to 13, at 38-25.

Green connected on a 3 at the buzzer to enable the Hokies to pull within in, at 38-28, at the break.

It didn’t get much better. Rivers sparked the Blue Devils on a 13-7 run to pull ahead by 16, and Duke eventually built it to their largest margin of 22, at 62-40, on a 3 by Kelly with 11:18 on the clock.

“My biggest concern is when we face that decision time we take the shortcut,” Greenberg said. “We don’t fight through that very well right now and that is something we have just got to continue to work on.”

The smooth-shooting Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics’ head coach Doc Rivers, was 7-11 from the field, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. He had three of those after the break. Rivers also dished out five assists and snared five rebounds.

“I think he played a very mature game tonight, he hit big shots and I thought his defense was good,” Krzyzewski said. “’I thought it was a good game for him.”

Duke made eight 3s in the game, while the Hokies were limited to three.

“They can hit 3s, Green is one of the best guards in the league,” Krzyzewski said. “When they get going on the 3s, I think they can give anybody in our conference a game.

“They have. They gave Carolina a good game until they ran out gas and Carolina is the most talented team in the league.”

A short basket by Green narrowed the margin to 52-40 with 14:56 to go, but the Blue Devils scored the next 12 points, paced by Rivers and Kelly with 3s, and Plumlee’s alley-oop dunk off a perfect feed from Cook.

A 3 from Kelly pulled Duke up 62-40 with 11:18 left. The Hokies did rally to within 14, but could never get any closer.

“We thought our guys did a really good job. We knew Virginia Tech would be ready for us,” Krzyzewski said. “Their back is up against the wall when you lose a few games in our conference.

“I thought our played very mature tonight, we played outstanding defense and we didn’t turn the ball over. We only had seven turnovers. I am very pleased with our team, to get our fourth road win (in the ACC) is very good.”

Virginia Tech has a short time to prepare for Clemson on Saturday. That isn’t much time for the Hokies, which had six sophomores and freshmen among the nine players that saw action.

One of those freshmen, Dorian Finney-Smith, was 0-4 and has missed his last 25 shot attempts.

Greenberg acknowledges the youth, but isn’t looking for excuses. He wants a team that deals with adversity better than the current Hokies is doing.

“To me that’s not who we’ve been for eight years,” Greenberg said. “For eight years we have had maybe stronger, tougher players. I don’t know if we have that component to set the tone right now and that’s frustrating.

“Our youth really comes shining through.”

— Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

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