Blue Devils, Scheyer recover to beat Miami

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- From the look on Duke senior guard Jon Scheyer’s face after the game, you wouldn’t have known the Blue Devils won Wednesday night at Miami.

Scheyer said he played his worst half of basketball ever as he was held scoreless while Miami ran out to a 12-point halftime lead. But he made shots when Duke needed them most as the sixth-ranked Blue Devils scored 56 second-half points to win 81-74 at the BankUnited Center in their biggest turnaround of the season.

“I was just terrible,” said Scheyer, the ACC’s second-leading scorer. “It’s all about winning, and obviously I’m [mad] at myself. I want to be there for my teammates. I can’t be making silly mistakes like that. Whether I’m missing shots or not, I need to shoot my shot strong. And I didn’t do that.”

He did it at the end, though, scoring 10 points in the final six minutes to preserve the win after Kyle Singler sparked the comeback with nine points in the first 2:24 of the second half.

With Miami trailing just 58-57, Scheyer made a pair of 3-point attempts in 28 seconds, stretching Duke’s lead to five points with 5:03 to play. Junior Nolan Smith, Scheyer’s backcourt partner, scored 10 points in the final 3:11 to prevent Miami from climbing back into the game.

Scheyer and Smith closed the game strong after a miserable first half. They combined to shoot 1-for-13 from the field before halftime, and only Smith’s 3-pointer with 1:13 left in the half prevented both of them from being scoreless at the intermission as Duke trailed 37-25.

“Everybody was mad,” senior center Brian Zoubek said of the halftime scene in the locker room. “Nobody was playing well. We weren’t playing together. It was just frustrating out there. We had to come out and do pretty much everything different.”

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he was so upset that he didn’t remember much of what he told the team at halftime. He did tell the players that it was up to them to turn it around.

They did, and Singler got them off to a fast start in the second half. The 2-3 matchup zone defense of Miami, which bothered Duke before halftime, wasn’t effective because the Blue Devils moved better without the ball.

After halftime, Singler hit for 16 of his 22 points, Smith scored 18 of his 21 points and Scheyer scored all 15 of his points. Smith also contributed improved ball pressure on Miami point guard Durand Scott.

“The defense in the second half was the starting point for us,” Krzyzewski said.

In the second half, Miami (17-9, 3-9 ACC) committed 12 turnovers and missed five of its six 3-point attempts. Duke (22-4, 10-2 ACC) held on for its fifth straight win.

Next up is a home game Sunday against Virginia Tech (21-4, 8-3), which also has won five in a row and is in second place behind the Blue Devils in the ACC. The game will match Scheyer with Hokies guard Malcolm Delaney, who’s the ACC’s leading scorer and the other frontrunner for ACC player of the year honors.

Before Duke left Miami, though, Krzyzewski explained away some of Scheyer’s difficulties. He said a back problem that has been bothering Scheyer for three weeks affected him Wednesday.

Krzyzewski said Scheyer is a special player and said he’s like a baseball player who always comes up with hits in the late innings. Earlier in the night, Smith and assistant coach Chris Collins both gave Scheyer pep talks.

Scheyer said it helped. So did winning.

“Regardless of how bad we played in the first half, I think it was still a tough thing to do, come back in the second half and jump on them,” Scheyer said. “They needed this game a lot, but so did we, and I think we showed a lot of heart.”