DURHAM -- A seven-point halftime lead was on the verge of evaporating before Duke got the shot it wanted. Kyle Singler threw the ball across the court to Jon Scheyer, wide open behind the 3-point line with Miles Plumlee standing in the way of anyone running at Scheyer's shot.
The best long-range shooter in the ACC won't get many better looks than that. He missed, one of many misses on the night. Duke's lead went missing not long after.
The Blue Devils didn't lose Sunday, coming back for a 67-55 win over Virginia Tech won't lose many games from now until the end of its season, whenever that may be. But anyone watching closely saw a vision of the future that could be: This is how it will end for Duke.
When all of Scheyer, Singler and Nolan Smith misfire, Duke puts itself in a difficult position. The offense is built around those three, and it's a coin flip whether anyone else steps up. No one did Sunday, and the Blue Devils found their way out thanks to some gritty defense and rebounding, but it's a dangerous game to play.
"I'd like to have other people score. That's an obvious thing," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "But what I want to do is win, and not let scoring or lack of scoring impact in a negative way our defense or rebounding. It'll come."
Scheyer was 4-for-19, Singler 7-for-15 after hitting his last three shots and Smith 6-for-17. Nonetheless, they scored 63 of Duke's 67 points - 20 on free throws - as the rest of the Devils went 1-for-11.
Duke finally put the game away with an 11-2 run keyed by a three-point play by Brian Zoubek, the first and only basket of the night by anyone else.
An opponent having a better offensive night than Virginia Tech - a prime example would be Villanova in last year's regional semifinal, under similar circumstances, but it wouldn't take that much - may have built an insurmountable lead long before then.
"Once we had the lead, we had opportunities to score and create some separation," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "We just didn't score.
"We didn't make enough shots. We got stops. We just didn't seize those opportunities."
It doesn't have to end this way. Players like Zoubek and the Plumlee brothers have, at times, shown the ability to score inside. Andre Dawkins could still find his shooting touch. And if the Big Three goes the rest of the way without a collective off night, the Devils may not have very many nights off.
On most nights, Duke's decent is good enough in a weaker-than-usual ACC. On any given night, the Blue Devils are good enough to beat anyone.
When Duke's shooters are on - and it only takes one, really - it takes a comprehensive offensive and defensive performance to beat the Blue Devils.
When their shots aren't falling, Duke is ripe to fall.
So many of the shots the Blue Devils missed Sunday were wide-open looks, exactly what the offense is designed to provide.
"If we were hitting some of those, those are signature plays for us," Krzyzewski said. "We get a rebound, kick it out for a 3, hit it and then we're skipping down the yellow-brick road."
Instead, it took a late flurry to pull the Blue Devils through. That is not a game the Blue Devils will want to play in March.
