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Scheyer, Duke find shooting touch at Miami

Jan 15, 2007 - 6:15 AM CORAL GABLES, Florida (Ticker) -- Freshman Jon Scheyer found out that the Atlantic Coast Conference is really not that difficult when you make your shots.

Scheyer scored a season-high 25 points as No. 11 Duke avoided an 0-3 start in the ACC with an 85-63 victory over Miami.

The Blue Devils' top freshman and fourth-leading scorer, Scheyer scored a combined 28 points in his first two league games, but shot just 39 percent (9-of-23) as Duke dropped decisions against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech.

Similar to the rest of the Blue Devils (14-3, 1-2 ACC), Scheyer came out gunning against the Hurricanes (9-9, 2-2), who failed to build upon a 63-58 win at No. 25 Maryland on Wednesday.

"Our intensity was not consistently at the level as it was Wednesday night, but these guys are very good," Miami coach Frank Haith said. "I have to give Duke credit for a very good game. They made contested shots, they executed well and they played very determined."

The 6-5 guard made all four of his shots from the field in the first half, including his third 3-pointer for a 45-29 advantage with 2:51 remaining.

"Certain games more shots are going to be there and others my shot won't be there that much," Scheyer said. "I hit a couple early, felt good and just kept feeling it."

DeMarcus Nelson also began strong, making fourth of his first five shots to score eight of Duke's first 11 points.

Nelson, the Blue Devils' lone upperclass starter, said that the threat of falling to 0-3 played a factor in the team early aggression.

"Sure we felt like we had to win, we lost two games that we felt like we gave away," the junior guard said. "We had to prepare inward for this game and look at ourselves. This game we wanted to come out here, compete at a high level and play with extreme confidence. Everyone made plays tonight."

Although Miami was able to slice that deficit to 49-40 at the half, Scheyer scored 15 points and Greg Paulus had 11 of his 15 in the opening 20 minutes.

Duke, which captured its ninth straight meeting in the series, shot an amazing 81 percent (17-of-21) in the first half, including 6-of-8 (75 percent) on 3-pointers.

"Playing a game like this is good because we've been fighting to be consistent," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We're young and we haven't had a lot of time together.

"This was not an easy thing tonight and I'm proud that we could make plays."

Although the Hurricanes closed the first half with an 11-4 run, the Blue Devils regained their edge after their break, going on a 17-5 burst over the first 7 1/2 minutes of the second half.

"We wanted to end the half better than we did," Paulus said. "We gave up the three and then the layup (before the buzzer). We got off to a good start the second half. We kept it together and just went back to the basics."

"I thought our guys lost focus on the offense and not executing our offense with Duke scoring so quickly," Haith said about his team's second half collapse. "We, as a young team, tried to shoot quickly and didn't run our offense."

Scheyer had six points in the second-half burst, converting all three free throws after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 2:03 expired. He added his fourth and final basket from the arc for a 64-44 advantage with 14:12 remaining.

Scheyer finished 5-of-8, including 4-of-6 from the arc, and made all 11 of his free throws.

Paulus, who made his return to the starting five after being benched for Wednesday's Georgia Tech game, shot 4-of-8 from the floor with three 3-pointers.

Nelson finished with 14 points, Josh McRoberts 11 and David McClure added eight and 11 rebounds for Duke, which finished a season-high 68 percent (28-of-41) from the field, including 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from the arc.

Brian Asbury scored 19 points for the Hurricanes, who shot 49 percent (23-of-47) and were outrebounded, 32-16.

Anthony Harris had 14 points but Jack McClinton, Miami's leading scorer, was held to five points on 1-of-6 shooting, more than 12 points below his season average.

"He was DeMarcus' responsibility," Krzyzewski said. "We gave him a lot of attention because we respect him. We switched on him a lot and that was effective."