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Duke 83 Southern Illinois 58
Duke was led by 20 second half points from Gerald Henderson as the Blue Devils beat Southern Illinois 83-58 to move to the championship game of the 2K Sports Classic. Henderson hit four three pointers and had one impressive dunk as he finally showed the abilities that warranted pre-season All-ACC honors.
In the first half, Brian Zoubek carried the Blue Devils as a rare post presence and finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Outside of Brian Zoubek, Duke played very poorly in the first half turning the ball over 13 times.
The Blue Devils stayed in the game with defense and a decided advantage on the free throw line. Duke finished the game making 40-47 (85%) from the free throw line, while SIU finished 12-19.
Kyle Singler also didn't score in the first half, but finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds, while Jon Scheyer played a solid game once again with 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.
The Blue Devils had one scary moment when Kyle Singler went up for a layup getting pushed into the support for the goal. Singler landed with one knee into the support and hit his head. After laying on his stomach for 5-10 seconds, Singler hopped up and stayed in the game.
Duke will play the winner of the UCLA/Michigan game tomorrow night at 7 PM in the finals of the 2K Sports Classic.
Virginia Tech 74 Fairfield 57
AD Vassallo scored 24 points and Jeff Allen added 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocks in Virginia Tech's 74-57 win over Fairfield. The win advanced the Hokies in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and will play Xavier tomorrow at 1:30 ET on ESPNU.
Over at TechHoops.com, they broke down the game...
Tech did a much better job of using their transition game, getting out and pushing the ball at every opportunity in the first half and later in the game. They had two lazy spells on offense and defense that almost cost VT their lead. The Hokies continued to struggle at times against a zone defense. fairfield used a 2-1-2/2-3 zone at times. Tech would just pass the ball along the perimeter instead of passing to the free throw line and running backdoor cuts, or penetrating the zone and having the other perimeter players slide along the three point line for kick-outs or dump passes to weak-side post players going towards the rim. But the Hokies did shoot very well from the outside in the half court set.
Welcome to the Jeff Allen Show (again)! Hope you enjoyed the ride. The Big Donut (or Dunking Donut as one clever student called him on Monday) hit two early threes and had 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the game, including a beautiful drop-step along the baseline for a layup. He set career highs with 4 three-pointers (on just 5 attempts!) and 5 blocks. But for the third straight game he just missed a double-double, ending with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 3 assists (what a fantasy line).
FSU 79 Stetson 77
Toney Douglas scored 26 points on 9-16 shooting to FSU to a 79-77 win over Stetson. Douglas hit 2 free throws with 1:01 left on the clock to give FSU a 4 point lead that the Seminoles maintained.
Ryan Reid (16 pts, 9 rebs), Soloman Alabi (13 pts, 5 rebs), and Chris Singleton (10 pts, 10 rebs) also added double-figures in the win
Factor of the Game
FSU forced Stetson to earn their points tonight, as Stetson was just 7-18 on dunks and layups. The 18 shots were 27% of Stetson's total shots. FSU on the other hand had 43% of their shots on dunks and layups where they went 16-24. FSU's aggressiveness also showed on the free throw line where the Noles had a decided advantage. FSU finished 28-34 (82.4%) from the charity stripe compared to just 8-13 for Stetson.
