Devils hold off Noles

Henderson finds room to operate

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gerald Henderson credited his most spectacular basket Saturday to luck.

Henderson's off-balance, first-half 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer wasn't the result of some brilliant plan on his part.

But the rest of his 25-point performance in No. 2-ranked Duke's 66-58 defeat of Florida State demonstrated his ability to elevate above the physical defense that bogged down the rest of the players on both teams.

"I just kind of felt weaknesses in the defense," Henderson said. "My ability to drive the basketball, get into the lane and make plays, it was there. Especially in that second half where I was able to come from the wing and make plays in the lane."

In front of a spirited crowd at the Donald L. Tucker Center, both teams slugged it out in a brutal first half. Duke guard Jon Scheyer compared the play on the boards to a rugby scrum.

Florida State (13-3, 0-1 ACC) starts four players 6 feet 7 or taller and grabbed 23 offensive rebounds against the smaller Blue Devils. But Duke possesses speed that the Seminoles couldn't match.

Henderson, a junior forward, used his quickness to get free for three 3-pointers, some baskets in the lane and two first-half fast-break baskets. Fourteen of his career-high 25 points came in the first half, which ended with Duke leading 19-14 after Henderson's teammates shot 1-for-12 from the field.

"He made us pay every time we made a defensive mistake on him," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said defense won the game for the Blue Devils, who held Florida State to 31 percent shooting from the field despite getting dominated on the boards. Henderson was a leader there, too, with three steals, as Duke's lateral quickness prevented Florida State's guards from getting into the lane until late in the game.

An alley-oop dunk and a 3-pointer by Henderson in the first three minutes of the second half helped Duke extend its lead, which reached 46-21 with 12:45 remaining. Florida State switched to a quicker lineup and cut the lead to 51-42 with six minutes left before Henderson took control again.

The Blue Devils (14-1, 2-0) milked the clock and had Henderson drive to scoop in a bank shot and hit a pull-up jump shot from 15 feet to stretch the lead to 13 points.

"His physicality, his athletic ability to create some shots was huge," Krzyzewski said.

After quiet first halves, forward Kyle Singler and point guard Nolan Smith complemented Henderson as scorers. Thirteen of Singler's 15 points and all of Smith's 12 came after halftime.

But Henderson was the only player with more than one field-goal attempt who shot higher than 50 percent. He was 9-for-14 from the field.

"They're tough in their halfcourt defense," Henderson said. "I got a lot of buckets off of contesting and us just pushing the ball."

Seeing Henderson play that way is somewhat of a relief for Duke. His production hasn't always matched his awesome athletic ability. In four of his first eight games, he was held to nine points or fewer.

Now he has scored 11 or more in seven straight games. Hamilton said Henderson looked much better Saturday than he had looked on film Florida State reviewed while preparing for the game.

"His athleticism obviously speaks for itself," Hamilton said. "Today he just seemed to be in rhythm offensively. And we didn't do very much to deter it."