Durham, N.C. — The Blue Devils turned up the heat on the Cavaliers yesterday, thrashing Virginia 79-54 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“Simply stated, we played a team that obviously is very good, talented and experienced,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “[Duke’s] on a bit of a mission, whether it’s what they are trying to do with the season or coming off their last game, that focuses on some very specific things to make their train run smoothly.”
The Blue Devils were not only able to shoot 44.4 percent in the first half, they were able to hold Virginia to eight field goals during that same time. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was concerned about some facets of Virginia’s play, but he said he believed his team did a good job addressing those areas.
“Virginia’s dangerous because they push it, and if they get open shots, they are going to take them,” Krzyzewski said. “We just felt it was a dangerous game for us if we don’t attack defensively and stay in passing lanes. We did that [and] got some buckets off of our defense.”
Virginia did not have a good first half — a common occurrence during ACC play — and the Cavaliers fell behind 43-21.
“Obviously during this stretch of games, we have gotten down by double figures and have had to climb out of a hole,” Leitao said. “You’re not going to be able to do that on the road very much; you are not going to be able to do that against very good teams very much.”
One player for Virginia who was able to have some success against the Blue Devils was freshman guard Sylven Landesberg. Contributing 20 points on eight of ten field goals, Landesberg was not fazed by Duke’s Cameron Crazies and even managed to impress Krzyzewski.
“He’s a really good player,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s an attacking player — puts you in a position where you can foul him, which we did for those two three-point plays.”
A turning point in the game, however, occurred when Landesberg picked up his second foul on a charge with 16:29 left in the first half and the Cavaliers trailing 11-5. When Landesberg came back into the game with 10:16 left in the first half, the score was 28-11 in favor of the Blue Devils.
“He’s got to shoot the ball, he’s got to make a scoring play because he elongates,” Krzyzewski said. “As long as you don’t foul him, you’ve got a chance to draw a charge, and we did. I thought we took some really [good] charges today.”
Turnovers also helped Virginia’s opposition, as the Cavaliers handed the ball to the Blue Devils 23 times.
“They wanted to get us out of our offense,” Virginia freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski said. “They were pressuring the wings and making it hard to change sides of the court with the ball, and we kind of figured it out in the second half what we needed to do, but by then it was too late because they jumped all over us in the first half.”
Virginia must now face a competitive Boston College team at home Wednesday. As the Cavaliers continue conference play, there are at least some positive aspects of Virginia’s play off which to possibly build, Krzyzewski said.
“I think they play hard,” the Duke coach said. “Our defense was really good today, so we didn’t allow as much penetration and we did a good job on switches, but they’re a dangerous team because they have a bunch of guys who can shoot the ball and they will play hard.”
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