Andy Manis - AP
Wisconsin's Trevon Hughes (3) and Ryan Evans (5) celebrate in the finals seconds of Wisconsin's 73-69 win over Duke in Madison, Wis. At left is Duke's Miles Plumlee. Hughes had a team-high 26 points.
MADISON, Wis. - It took 11 years, but Duke's long run of success in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge ended Wednesday night at the hands of a disciplined Wisconsin team that solved the Blue Devils' no-longer impregnable defense.
Wisconsin senior point guard Trevon Hughes shot over and drove around Duke and guard Nolan Smith for a career-high 26 points. Hughes also shut down Jon Scheyer on the defensive end as the Badgers survived a late rally and defeated the sixth-ranked Blue Devils 73-69 at the Kohl Center.
"We didn't come out with that same hunger that we'd had," said Scheyer, who was held to 10 points, six below his season average.
Duke had won its previous 10 games in the Challenge, and when the Blue Devils fell, so did the ACC. The Big Ten won for the first time ever, six games to five.
Junior forward Kyle Singler scored a career-high 28 points and handed out three assists for Duke (6-1). Seventeen of those came in the first half, when Wisconsin bolted to a 17-7 lead. The Badgers spread the floor and remained patient in coach Bo Ryan's old-school "swing" offense and shot 8-for-20 from 3-point range.
"You have to communicate really well against it and play passing lanes well," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "And their offense beat our defense. Their offense was better than our defense."
Despite his career-high scoring effort, Singler couldn't convert on the most important possession of the game. Freshman guard Andre Dawkins made three 3-pointers in 1 minute, 41 seconds to help cut an 11-point deficit to 67-65.
Singler drove and tried to muscle up a shot from the left side of the lane, but freshman Ryan Evans blocked it with 30 seconds remaining.
"The play was there," Singler said. "We just didn't execute it right."
Down by three with 4.9 seconds left, Duke had a final chance for a 3-pointer to tie, but Scheyer couldn't catch Singler's 50-foot pass as it bounced out of bounds for a turnover. As the buzzer sounded, Wisconsin's students stormed the court to celebrate with the players.
Hughes' defense on Scheyer, who entered the game averaging 16.8 points, was a major factor. Scheyer was held to 10 points as Hughes used his quickness to keep him from getting into the lane to create for himself and his teammates as the Badgers improved to 5-1.
Scheyer and starting backcourt partner Nolan Smith combined to shoot 7-for-24 from the field.
"They did a good job overall, I thought, defensively," Scheyer said. "There really wasn't much there. We didn't do a good job staying patient. They did a good job. They didn't really give me a lot of open looks."
Wisconsin's players and fans entered this game motivated by an 82-58 loss at Duke in the 2007 ACC-Big Ten Challenge that is among the worst losses of Ryan's tenure.
The fans packed the 17,500-seat Kohl Center and erupted with each of the five 3-pointers the Badgers made in the first half as they ran out to a 17-7 lead. Duke entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 36 percent from the field, but the Badgers made 16 of their first 26 field goal attempts and led 38-32 at halftime after getting perimeter scoring from some unlikely spots.
Keaton Nankivil, a bruising, 6-foot-8 forward, entered the game shooting 1-for-11 from 3-point range. He made both of his 3-point attempts in the first half.
Center Jon Leuer, who's 6-10, was 1-for-10 on 3-point shots in his first five games but sank his first 3-point try with just 2:19 elapsed. Only Singler's 17 first-half kept the Blue Devils from trailing by double digits at halftime.
"We lost to a team that played, I thought, an outstanding game," Krzyzewski said. "Great crowd. Great team."
