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DURHAM — Mike Krzyzewski came out swinging, and glass-jawed Wake Forest went down hard Sunday night.

Duke beat the Deacons 101-91 in a game torn from the pages of ancient times in the ACC, a full-throttle affair between two teams fighting for the same thing — survival. Krzyzewski said it was a game his team had to win, something few coaches will ever utter.

He was careful about how he said that to his players, but when they saw their coach doing red-faced fist-pumps during player introductions, they had a pretty good understanding of what he meant. Duke took a 41-19 lead, and waited for Wake to fall.

The eighth-ranked Deacons came back behind their best player, and one of the great bursts by one of the league's strongest personalities. Jeff Teague hadn't hit a jumper in the first 14 minutes of the game, and the Deacs trailed by 22. Dino Gaudio, the second-year Wake coach, said he arrived just in time.

Teague would have 16 points by halftime and would end the game with 28, but the energy expended in the comeback wore out the Deacs.

They would have nothing left at the end.

The fast start by Duke was vintage Blue Devils. After exploding out of a pre-game trance and into a wild-eyed cheerleader, Krzyzewski exhorted the crowd and then his players to explode with him. They did.

They'd seen him in the days leading up to this one. They'd seen him ratchet up his emotions in the days leading up to the game between top-10 rivals, and he'd come very close to telling his team exactly what he was thinking. That they had to win the game.

"In so many words," he said. "Instead of saying we had to win it, I told them 'I'm not going to tell you you have to win, I'm going to tell you we're going to win.' The anticipation of doing something should help us better than the expectation of having to do it."

The anticipation wore off about the time Teague drained a jumper with 2:49 left in the first half. Over the course of about 3 minutes, the Deacons leading scorer scored 10 points and had an assist he rolled off the head of center David Weaver.

Somehow, a game Wake had no chance of surviving was close again.

"I don't think he waited too late," Gaudio said. "He had 28."

Wake has a team of many moving parts, and after a brilliant run to No. 1 in the nation in January, the Deacs began to come apart. Over the stretch of three weeks, Wake lost four of six and tumbled into the second tier of the conference. The 20-5 Deacs have lost five of nine games since claiming the No. 1 ranking, have fallen to 7-5 in the ACC and have lost control of the tobacco road to Greensboro, one of the first-round sites for the NCAA tournament.

Duke now emerges as a likely team to join North Carolina in Greensboro Coliseum the third week in March, but there's still a lot that will happen between now and then. Krzyzewski knew that as he demanded his team win Sunday night, knew that his show of emotion in the days and moments leading to the tip-off would provide a spark that would eventually wear down his own team, too.

And he did it anyway in what he called an old-fashioned ACC thriller. He said he was stunned by his team's early response to playing behind freshman point guard Elliot Williams and more than a little concerned over Wake's own response.

"We didn't know what the hell to do to stop them," Krzyzewski said. "They're so good offensively. So good."

He switched assignments, tried playing zone, weathered Wake's long run then answered one more time after Krzyzewski had taken off his jacket and reminded his team it was going to win.

"We're going to win," he repeated afterward. "Not that we have to win. It's a subtle thing, but it's an important thing."

During a late timeout, with the crowd catching its breath and his players standing with their hands on their hips and Wake still standing despite the repeated Duke flurries, Krzyzewski again burst through his players and addressed his team and then the crowd.

"C'mon!" he screamed.

They did.

Duke took down Wake Forest in the kind of game they played in this league a long time ago, the kind of game they play in this league a lot these days, too.

The ninth-ranked Blue Devils beat eighth-ranked Wake at the end of a strange week in college basketball, one that saw four of the top 10 teams lose.

Krzyzewski decided Duke would not be that fourth team, and he told his team just that, in so many words.

And screams.

And fist pumps.

Eventually, Wake Forest cracked and fell near the end of a hard-fought game near the end of a long, strange season.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com