LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Duke has a chance at another title on Maui.
Gerald Henderson scored 23 points and DeMarcus Nelson 16, leading the 13th-ranked Blue Devils to a 79-66 victory Tuesday night over Illinois in the semifinals of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
Duke (4-0) will meet No. 11 Marquette, which beat Oklahoma State 91-61, tonight for the shot at title No. 4.
The Blue Devils are 11-0 on the island, having won the championship in 1992, 1997 and 2001. No other school has more than two Maui titles in the 24 years of the tournament.
Brian Randle scored 16 points for the Fighting Illini (3-1), whose best offensive weapon was a missed shot. They outrebounded Duke 22-5 on the offensive boards and finished with 31 second-chance points compared to eight for the Blue Devils.
Illinois shot 32.3 percent (21-for-65) as Duke played a lot of zone defense, and that allowed the Illini to crash the boards the way they did.
As bad as Illinois' shooting was, Duke's was very good. The Blue Devils shot 57.7 percent (15-for-26) in taking a 44-36 halftime lead and finished at 56.5 percent for the game (26-for-46), including 6-for-13 from 3-point range.
Henderson was 8-for-15 from the field and Nelson 6-for-8.
Duke's biggest lead in the first half was 42-25 on a 3-pointer by Henderson with 2:36 left. Illinois closed the half with an 11-2 run that kept the sellout crowd of 2,500 at the Lahaina Civic Center interested.
The Illini kept the run going at the start of the second half with five straight points, making it 44-41 with 18:14 left on a layup by Randle. But the Blue Devils answered with a 9-2 run capped by a 3-pointer by Greg Paulus, and Illinois was never closer than seven points the rest of the way. Duke led by as many as 19.
It was a physical game with 49 fouls called, 27 against Illinois, and there was one scrap when Illinois' Chester Frazier and Duke's Kyle Singler got in each other's face with 15:41 to play, but the officials got both teams to their benches for a TV timeout and there were no more problems.
The victory was coach Mike Krzyzewski's 779th and moved him into a tie for eighth place on the career list with former Illinois and New Mexico State coach Lou Henson.
ILLINOIS (3-1)--Alexander 1-7 4-4 6, Randle 5-11 5-8 16, Pruitt 4-12 3-4 11, Meacham 1-7 2-2 4, Frazier 2-5 2-3 7, Jordan 0-1 0-0 0, Holdren 0-1 0-0 0, Davis 1-1 1-2 3, Brock 5-11 2-4 14, McCamey 0-5 1-2 1, Tisdale 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 21-65 20-29 66.
DUKE (4-0)--Singler 3-6 2-3 8, Thomas 2-2 1-2 5, Paulus 2-6 4-4 10, Henderson 8-15 5-8 23, Nelson 6-8 4-6 16, Smith 1-1 3-4 6, King 0-0 0-0 0, Scheyer 2-6 2-2 7, Zoubek 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 26-46 21-29 79.
Halftime--Duke 44-36. 3-Point Goals--Illinois 4-16 (Brock 2-2, Randle 1-3, Frazier 1-3, Holdren 0-1, Alexander 0-2, McCamey 0-2, Meacham 0-3), Duke 6-13 (Paulus 2-4, Henderson 2-4, Smith 1-1, Scheyer 1-3, Singler 0-1). Fouled Out--Brock, Frazier, Singler. Rebounds--Illinois 41 (Alexander, Frazier 9), Duke 31 (Scheyer 7). Assists--Illinois 10 (Meacham 4), Duke 11 (Paulus 4). Total Fouls--Illinois 27, Duke 22. A--2,500.
No. 11 MARQUETTE 91, OKLAHOMA STATE 61: Marquette (4-0) defended and hustled its way into the championship game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.
Jerel McNeal scored 20 points and Dominic James 18 for the Golden Eagles in a never-in-doubt semifinal victory over Oklahoma State (2-2). Terrel Harris scored 17 points and freshman James Anderson 14 for the Cowboys.
The Golden Eagles opened the game with a 13-2 spurt. The Cowboys just didn't look ready for the intense defense Marquette threw at them. Oklahoma State missed six of its first seven shots and turned the ball over four times in the opening burst.
"The best way for our team to come out and get into it is to turn up the defensive intensity," James said. "We hit them first and kept that mentality throughout the game."
Not all of the newspaper's content appears online.
*There is a fee for downloading some older articles.