Duke avoids upset

BY JOEDY McCREARY

AP Sports Writer

DURHAM, N.C. — His roster is loaded with blue-chip talent and high school All-Americans. Yet Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knows his sixth-ranked Blue Devils aren’t good enough to win by simply showing up.

Vermont proved it to them Sunday night.

Out-of-sync — and overconfident — Duke needed a free throw from Rodney Hood with 5 seconds left to dodge the Catamounts’ upset bid and win 91-90.

“They were terrific,” Krzyzewski said, “and we were awful.”

And that wasn’t even close to the harshest criticism Coach K had for his players.

He called it an “unacceptable performance,” said the Blue Devils “were lucky to win” and implored them to “respect the game more than we did tonight.”

Jabari Parker scored 26 points in his sixth straight 20-point performance. Hood finished with 22 for Duke (5-1), which extended its nonconference winning streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium to 106 games.

Barely.

Duke blew a 15-point lead and allowed Vermont to shoot 64.8 percent before — depending on the perspective — it either got the one defensive stop it needed, or the Catamounts simply ran out of time.

“We played like a team that thought we would just show up and win,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s how you get beat.”

Candon Rusin’s four-point play with 10.4 seconds left for Vermont tied it at 90. Hood brought the ball downcourt, drove the lane and drew contact from Clancy Rugg. Hood bounced his first free throw off the rim, then swished the second.

Sandro Carissimo hurried the Catamounts downcourt and found Rusin in the corner, but he couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.

“We didn’t win this game,” Hood said. “We kind of deserved to lose the game, and we got lucky.”

Hector Harold scored 24 points and Rugg finished with 20 for Vermont (1-5). The America East favorites lost their fourth straight, dressed only nine healthy players but gave Duke all it could handle with by far its best shooting performance of the season.

The Catamounts — who hadn’t shot better than 44 percent all season — routinely found open passing lanes and created paths to the bucket against a lethargic Duke team that, for all of its athleticism, lacks a true big man. Vermont outscored Duke 50-24 in the paint.

Vermont “came into Duke with no pressure on us, and we played like there was no pressure on us,” coach John Becker said. “Maybe this is a lesson learned for our guys.”

For Duke, too.

Andre Dawkins scored 16 points and Quinn Cook added 14 for the Blue Devils. Cook broke a tie with a 3-pointer with just under 2 minutes left that made it 86-83.

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Marcus Paige scored 32 points and No. 24 North Carolina beat No. 3 Louisville 93-84 to win the Hall of Fame Tipoff Tournament.

Brice Johnson added 13 points and Kennedy Meeks had 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for the Tar Heels (4-1), who lost just a week ago at home to Belmont.

Russ Smith had 36 points for Louisville (5-1), which came into the game on a school-record 21-game winning streak. Chris Jones added 20 points.

It was a three-point game with just over 13 minutes left when Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell picked up his fourth foul. North Carolina scored the next eight points.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 26 points to lead Georgetown to the win in the fifth-place game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

Markel Starks added 23 points, and went 10 for 10 at the free-throw line to help preserve the win. Joshua Smith finished with 17.

There were 61 fouls called in the game, which lasted nearly three hours

VCU (4-2) forced 26 turnovers, but shot 35 percent for the game. Georgetown (3-2) shot 56 percent, and was 6 for 11 from the 3-point line.

Briante Weber had 22 points for VCU, which went 34 for 47 at the free-throw line. Treveon Graham added 17 points.

Georgetown went 32 for 37 at the line.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Alex Kirk had 16 points and 14 rebounds, and New Mexico beat Davidson to take third place at the Charleston Classic.

The Lobos (4-1) had hoped to be playing in the title game of the eight-team tournament, but fell to Massachusetts 81-65 on Friday. The 7-foot Kirk took full advantage of Davidson’s size disadvantage and largely had his way inside for his fifth double-double in as many games this season. It was the junior’s 15th career game with double figures in points and rebounds.

Cameron Bairstow had 18 points for the Lobos.

Brian Sullivan had 17 points and four 3-pointers for Davidson, which played without injured top scorer De’Mon Brooks.