Wake Forest vs Duke Game Notes

Duke (13-0, 0-0) vs. Wake Forest (7-5, 0-0)
Saturday, January 5, 2013 • 12:02 p.m. • ESPNU
Durham, N.C. • Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314)

Television
ESPNU
Play-by-Play: Carter Blackburn
Analyst: Jay Williams

Radio
Blue Devil IMG Sports Network
Play-by-Play: Bob Harris
Analyst: John Roth
Sirius - 85; XM - 85

The Opening Tip
• Duke is 13-0 on the year and looking to open the season with 14 straight wins for the sixth time under Mike Krzyzewski.
• The Blue Devils are ranked No. 1 in both the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duke has been ranked No. 1 in 11 of the past 16 seasons.
• Duke has been ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll 125 weeks overall, including 107 weeks under Coach K.
• Duke is 211-31 all-time when ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll. Krzyzewski is second in NCAA history with 187 wins and 213 games at the helm of the top-ranked team in the AP Poll.
• Senior Ryan Kelly has scored at least 20 points in three consecutive games against Wake Forest. He averages 15.6 points per game in four career contests against Wake Forest.
• Saturday’s game marks the ACC opener for both schools. Duke has won five consecutive ACC openers and is 25-7 in ACC openers under head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The Last Time Out
• Duke won its fourth straight game as the nation’s No. 1 team, defeating Davidson, 67-50, Wednesday in Time Warner Cable Arena.
• Ryan Kelly scored a game-high 18 points and continued his hot shooting from three-point range by hitting 3-of-4 shots from beyond the arc. Quinn Cook added 15 points, and Mason Plumlee and Tyler Thornton also scored in double figures with 10 points apiece.
• Duke outscored Davidson 38-21 in the second half and held the Wildcats scoreless over the first 6:08 of the second half.
• Davidson outrebounded Duke 22-15 in the first half, but the Blue Devils responded by outrebounding the Wildcats 18-12 in the second half. After amassing nine offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points in the first half, Davidson grabbed just four offensive boards and scored four second-chance points in the second half.

Numbers Game
• Duke, ranked No. 1 in the latest AP Poll, has been ranked in the top 10 of the poll 102 consecutive weeks. The last time Duke was not ranked in the top 10 was Nov. 19, 2007.
• Under Coach K, Duke has played more games as a No. 1 team (213 entering Saturday’s contest) than it has as an unranked team (141).
• Duke is playing its 190th straight game as a top-10 team in the AP poll. Duke is 159-30 in that span.
• The Blue Devils have won five straight ACC openers and are 25-7 in ACC openers under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Duke’s last loss in a league opener came on January 6, 2007, against Virginia Tech, 69-67, in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
• Duke has won 19 ACC Regular Season Championships, including 12 under Coach K. Duke has won five of those titles since the 1999-2000 season.
• The Blue Devils have finished in the top two of the ACC standings in five consecutive seasons. Duke has finished 13-3 four times during that span.
• As a team, Duke is shooting 52.3 percent (23-of-44) from three-point range over the last three games. Ryan Kelly (7-of-10, .700), Tyler Thornton (5-of-8, .625) and Quinn Cook (3-of-6, .500) are all shooting 50.0 percent or better from three-point range during that span.
• On the season, Duke is shooting 41.7 percent (98-of-235) from three-point range which would rank as the third-highest three-point shooting percentage in school history. Duke has shot over 40.0 percent from three just three times in school history (1982-83, 1986-87, 1991-92).
• Seth Curry needs just 24 more points to reach 1,000 for his career. Curry would be the second Duke player to reach that mark this season, following Mason Plumlee who netted his 1,000th career point against Santa Clara on Dec. 29.
• Duke’s point guard combo of Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton combines to average 8.5 assists and just 3.9 turnovers per game, good for a 2.22:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Duke has one of the most efficient offenses in the country, averaging 1.15 points per possession which ranks tied for 11th nationally. That is the second-highest average in the ACC, trailing only NC State’s 1.17 points per possession.
• Quinn Cook has 30 assists and just seven turnovers in his last five games while averaging 10.6 points per game during that span. He is shooting .556 (10-of-18) from three-point range during that stretch.
• Ryan Kelly is shooting .611 (11-of-18) from three-point range over his past six contests. Duke is shooting .462 (49-of-106) with 8.2 treys per game during that stretch.
• Mason Plumlee recorded his 1,000th career point on Saturday versus Santa Clara. Plumlee is the 61st Duke player to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Seth Curry needs just 30 more points to reach 1,000 for his Duke career. Duke is currently third in NCAA history with 61 career 1,000-point scorers.

Duke-Wake Forest Series History
• Duke leads the all-time series 160-77, including a 25-6 mark since the 1996-97 season. Duke is 41-23 against Wake Forest under Mike Krzyzewski.
• Duke has won the last five meetings in the series with four of those five wins coming by 10 or more points.
• Wake Forest was the first team Duke faced in the program’s inaugural 1905-06 season. Wake Forest won back-to-back games that year, 24-10 and 15-5.
• The series is the most played series in Duke basketball history. The teams have met 237 times, surpassing the NC State series (236) and North Carolina series (234).

Duke vs. the Atlantic Coast Conference
• Duke is 398-161 all-time in the regular season against teams currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
• Under Mike Krzyzewski, Duke is 335-140 against the ACC in the regular season and 53-18 in the ACC Tournament.
• Duke has domianted the ACC regular season since 1997, logging a 191-49 record during that span which is 34 more wins than the next closest school

Kelly leads Duke past Davidson

SONY DSCCHARLOTTE, N.C. - It was supposed to be Seth Curry's homecoming -- then Ryan Kelly stole the show.

Kelly scored 18 points to help top-ranked Duke remain unbeaten with a 67-50 victory over Davidson on Wednesday night.

Quinn Cook scored 15 points and Mason Plumlee scored eight of his 10 in the second half for the Blue Devils (13-0), who are one of only four undefeated teams remaining in Division I. Tyler Thornton added 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the second half to spark Duke.

"For our guys to go 13-0 with our nonconference schedule is just magnificent," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It's terrific."

The game was tied 29-all at halftime before Duke opened the second half with a 12-0 run. The Blue Devils, who led by as many as 19 in the second half, heated up from 3-point range after the break, going 3 for 4 in the early minutes of the period.

During that six-minute span to open the second half the Wildcats had nine empty possessions.

"That's when they made their run," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "You wipe that six minutes out, well. ... But that's why Duke is number one. Somehow they are going to make you pay during that six-minute period. They've done that in every game they played this year."

Curry, playing in front of his hometown fans and against his older brother Stephen's alma mater, had a rough night, finishing with six points on 3-of-11 shooting. Earlier in the day, Stephen Curry -- who plays for the Golden State Warriors -- wrote on Twitter that he was rooting for Davidson but hoping his brother dropped 30-plus points.

That didn't happen, but Kelly picked up the slack, hitting 5 of 8 from the field -- including 3 for 4 from 3-point range.

"I got the shots that I wanted. I just wasn't able to get them to go down," Curry said. "Maybe I was pressing a little early trying to get going. I'm just going to have to bounce back on Saturday."

It didn't help that Davidson placed an emphasis on rotating and taking away opportunities from Curry and Plumlee.

That benefited Kelly, who was left open for shots.

"They were physical, they were riding us," Kelly said. "That made it tough on Mason to get his shots. But once we figured it out, we saw the holes in it. Mason is the type of player where he's unselfish. He passed out of double teams and it created for others."

Duke is set to open ACC play at home against Wake Forest on Saturday, while Davidson is home to face Southern Conference foe UNC-Greensboro.

Jake Cohen led Davidson (7-6) with 19 points and eight rebounds despite battling through early foul trouble, and De'Mon Brooks pulled down 12 rebounds and scored eight points in the Wildcats' 24th straight loss to Duke.

Plumlee scored on an inbound play to ignite Duke's 12-0 burst coming out of halftime.

Kelly followed with a pair of free throws, Quinn Cook hit a foul-line jumper and Thornton knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing. Kelly capped the run with a 3-pointer from the left corner, his third of the game, to push the lead to 12.

Duke had seven assists and two turnovers in the second half after just one assist and nine turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

They held Davidson to 30 percent shooting for the game, and the Wildcats were just 4 of 19 from behind the arc.

"I thought our defense was terrific," Krzyzewski said.

Davidson, which hung tough in the opening half, would never get closer than eight after Duke's run to start the second half.

The Wildcats entered the locker room at halftime tied despite shooting just 32 percent in the first half. Cohen, last year's co-conference player of the year along with Brooks, sat out 15 minutes after picking up his second foul less than three minutes in.

Davidson did it with hustle, outrebounding the taller Blue Devils 22-15 in the opening half, including a 9-1 edge on the offensive boards.

"In the first half we gave up offensive rebounds and in the second half we didn't and to me that was the key to the ball game," Krzyzewski said.

Brooks, who has been a factor inside for the Wildcats all season, struggled to get off shots against Duke's defenders, who began collapsing on him in the paint. He finished 4 of 13 from the field.

Virginia safety Chris Holmes switches commitment to Duke

Virginia safety Chris Holmes has committed to Duke
Virginia safety Chris Holmes has committed to Duke

For the second time in the past month, the Blue Devils, fresh off their first bowl appearance in 18 years, have flipped a commitment from another BCS school. Chris Holmes, a 6'2" 190 pound prospect from Chancellor High School, had committed to NC State last summer, but the coaching change in Raleigh forced him to consider other options. The Duke staff seized the opportunity, bringing the star defensive back in for an official visit in December. The Blue Devils received a commitment from another Chancellor High School player two years ago in DT Sam Marshall. Marshall's presence, along with the relationship with the Duke coaching staff, was a big factor in the decision to switch to the Blue Devils.

Fredericksburg.com first reported the news of Holmes' decision. “I had a better bond with the coaches and the players at Duke,” Holmes told Nathan Warters of Fredericksburg.com, "It’s a team that’s on the turnaround. I liked that, I wanted to be a part of that.”

Holmes holds more than a dozen scholarship offers, including ACC programs like Boston College, Clemson and NC State, along with Michigan, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Holmes joins fellow Virginia defensive backs Evrett Edwards and Jake Kite in the Blue Devils' class of 2013. Edwards will enroll at Duke next week, while Kite and Holmes expect to enroll this summer. The Blue Devils will have to replace 3 starters in their defensive backfield after the graduation of Lee Butler, Jordon Byas, and Walt Canty.

Earlier in December, the Blue Devils received a commitment from Dominic Zanca-McDonald, a Florida linebacker who had previously committed to Tennessee. Like at NC State, the Volunteers have undergone a coaching staff change, which led to an opportunity for the Duke staff to secure another commitment. The Blue Devils will host LB Jerod Fernandez, another NC State commitment, on an official visit later this month.

Junior Highlights