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Booker, Oglesby power Clemson's rout of Duke

Feb 5, 2009 - 6:06 AM CLEMSON, South Carolina (Ticker) -- Clemson proved that it does belong in the upper echelon of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Behind a suffocating, full-court press and stellar defense, No. 10 Clemson manhandled third-ranked Duke, cruising to a 74-47 victory on Wednesday.

Trevor Booker scored 21 points and Terrence Oglesby had 17 for the Tigers, who snapped a 20-game regular-season losing streak to the Blue Devils.

"I know a lot of people saw this game and know we're for real now," Booker said.

Clemson (19-2, 5-2 ACC) controlled the boards and held Duke to just 31 percent (16-of-52) shooting in the Blue Devils' most lopsided loss since 1998.

After opening the season with 16 straight wins for the second time in three seasons, Clemson suffered a pair of double-digit defeats to Wake Forest and North Carolina, leaving some to think it would regress into the middle of the ACC once again.

The Tigers emphatically answered their critics.

"I've said all along you get better as a team by taking lessons from seasons before, from games before," Tigers coach Oliver Purnell said. "You'd like all those lessons to be positive, but sometimes you have to take them from losses.

"That really applied tonight. We were ready for this atmosphere."

Clemson gained control of the contest with a 9-2 run midway through the first half, taking a 26-17 lead with 5:57 left before the break. Oglesby capped the run with a 3-pointer.

Duke (19-3, 6-2), which went the final 5 1/2 minutes of the first half without a basket, struggled on the offensive end throughout the opening 20 minutes. The Blue Devils turned the ball over 11 times and made 33 percent (8-of-24) of their shots as they went into the locker rooms trailing, 33-21.

The Tigers scored the first five points of the second half and extended the advantage to 48-28 on Jerai Grant's dunk with 14:22 to play.

Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski cycled his bench players onto the floor to try and find a lineup that would work, but it was to no avail.

"It was 40 minutes of dominating. They kicked our butt," Krzyzewski said. "We had no chance of winning this game. None. We don't lose games like this very often."

Oglesby made a 3-pointer and Booker had a dunk in transition as Clemson took a 61-39 advantage with 8:14 left to play before cruising to the finish.

"Duke's a great team," Oglesby said. "But we're starting to consider ourselves at the top of the conference."

K.C. Rivers added 11 points and had seven of Clemson's 12 steals. The Tigers scored 23 points off 16 Blue Devils turnovers.

Gerald Henderson scored 16 points to pace the Blue Devils. Leading scorer Kyle Singler was held to six points and Jon Scheyer had three.

The 47 points were the fewest Duke had scored since it had 44 in a game on February 4, 1994.