No. 9 Duke tops No. 8 Wake 101-91

[February 23, 2009]  DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Gerald Henderson scored a career-high 35 points and No. 9 Duke held on to beat No. 8 Wake Forest 101-91 on Sunday night.

Jon Scheyer added a career high with 30 points for the Blue Devils (22-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). They twice led by 22 points in the first half and let the Demon Deacons creep within two points before finally putting them away with a 16-6 run that was keyed by Henderson.

Jeff Teague scored 28 points and James Johnson added 26 for the Demon Deacons (20-5, 7-5). They shot 61 percent but allowed Duke to hit 54 percent of its attempts -- the worst performance of the season by the ACC's stingiest defense.

Yet Wake Forest managed to twice close within two points in the final moments, the last coming when freshman Al-Farouq Aminu's alley-oop dunk from Johnson made it 80-78 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining.

Scheyer knocked down three free throws roughly 30 seconds later to start the decisive run in which Duke hit 6-of-7 attempts from the foul line. Henderson and Scheyer then capped the run by hitting 3-pointers about a minute apart, with Scheyer pushing it to 96-84 with 2:12 left.

Wake Forest didn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Kyle Singler and Williams had 11 points apiece for Duke, which led by 20 before Teague hit his first field goal and went on to deny the Demon Deacons their first series sweep in 13 years while keeping them from their first win at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1997.

Ishmael Smith scored 12 points and L.D. Williams added 10 for Wake Forest, which has lost four straight road games. Its last victory away from Joel Coliseum came at Clemson and propelled them to the second No. 1 ranking in school history.

The following week, after the Demon Deacons were dethroned, they knocked Duke from the top spot with a 70-68 victory in which Henderson's turnover in the final seconds gave Johnson an opportunity to hit the game-winning shot with 0.8 seconds remaining.

The Duke junior made no such mistakes this time. He easily eclipsed his previous career high of 25 points set last month at Florida State and became the first Blue Devils player to score 30 since J.J. Redick in 2006 -- and Scheyer equaled the feat a few moments later.

Henderson was 11-of-15 shooting -- and hit 10 of his 11 attempts inside the 3-point arc -- while slicing his way through the Demon Deacons' defense for dunks and layups.

He and Duke appeared to have taken control early by outscoring Wake Forest 28-4 during a 9-minute stretch midway through the first half in which the Blue Devils made their guests look like a young, mistake-prone team that had never before played at Cameron.

Then again, three Demon Deacons starters were, in fact, playing here for the first time, and Duke twice led by 22 after reeling off 14 straight points during that run.

But after falling behind 41-19, Wake Forest made it a game again by scoring on eight consecutive possessions to start a run in which it outscored the Blue Devils 25-10 over a 7-minute stretch that bridged halftime. Teague -- who went without a field goal for the opening 14 minutes -- started that run with a jumper and had 16 points during that burst.

[Associated Press; By JOEDY McCREARY]

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