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Wake Forest snaps Duke's 12-game streak

Feb 18, 2008 - 4:41 AM WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Freshman Jeff Teague and Wake Forest finally cooled off Duke.

Teague scored 26 points as the Demon Deacons pulled away in the second half to stun the second-ranked Blue Devils, 86-73, in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Sunday.

Freshman James Johnson added 24 points as Wake Forest (16-8, 6-5 ACC) snapped Duke's 12-game winning streak and handed the Blue Devils (22-2, 10-1) their first conference defeat.

The Demon Deacons responded to every challenge in winning their third straight game and handing Duke its first loss on the road.

"I thought both teams played very, very hard," Demon Deacons coach Dino Gaudio. "I'm really proud of our kids. It was a great win for us over a great team and a great program. Obviously, they're one of the best-coached teams in the country."

Wake Forest refused to fold when it fell behind, 60-55, with just over 11 minutes to play in the game, rallying behind the play of the speedy Teague.

Teague scored nine points, including a three-point play that capped a 17-2 run and gave the Demon Deacons a 72-62 lead with 4:58 to play.

"Knowing Duke and how well they can shoot the ball, people were clapping and cheering and we were only up by 10 and I was thinking anything can happen," Teague said. "It didn't really hit me until there were 20 seconds left."

Duke managed to get within six on Greg Paulus' 3-pointer 45 seconds later, but the Blue Devils simply could not keep up with Wake and watched their entire starting lineup foul out in futile pursuit.

"Their team played with incredible energy and they played with more energy than we did," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "In the second half I thought we were playing them even and they made big buckets. Johnson and Teague played great games for them. Both of them got us into a lot of foul trouble."

Freshman Nolan Smith came off the bench to lead Duke with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting. DeMarcus Nelson added 18 points, but the senior guard missed all six of his shots in the second half. Freshman Kyle Singler chipped in with 17 points, giving him 67 in his last three games.

A freewheeling first half featured a stirring scoring duel between Nelson and the freshman tandem of Johnson and Teague.

Teague hit three early 3-pointers and scored 11 points to spark the Demon Deacons to an early 18-9 lead.

"Jeff Teague got us started," Johnson said. "Growing up, everybody wants to play against Duke. Tonight we got to do that and Jeff showed us that he wasn't scared. After that, we got on them."

Nelson answered with two of his three first-half shots from the arc, giving the Blue Devils a 30-28 lead with just under 5 1/2 minutes to go.

Johnson took over in the waning moments, scoring nine of his team's final 17 points of the half to give Wake a 47-42 edge at the break.

Johnson and Nelson each scored 15 points and Teague had 13 in the opening 20 minutes.

"We still have some proving to do, but this was a big win and Duke is a great team," Wake guard L.D. Williams said. "Maybe it will help us to be dancing in March. I feel like we still have some proving to do."