Duke beats Sendek again

NEW YORK -- Last weekend, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made a point of calling Arizona State’s Herb Sendek “one of the best coaches in the country.”

But Wednesday night, yet again, the Blue Devils had the better team.

Krzyzewski, 21-3 against Sendek when Sendek coached at N.C. State, put one more victory in the head-to-head win column by beating the Sun Devils 64-53 in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.

As a result, seventh-ranked Duke (5-0) will play No. 13 Connecticut, which blew out LSU in the early game, in Friday's 5 p.m. championship showdown.

“In the five games we’ve played, we’ve played against outstanding coaches who have different systems,’’ Krzyzewski said after his team limited ASU to 2-for-13 from the 3-point line for the game and 28.6 percent shooting overall in the second half. “We overpowered the first four, and this one, you weren’t going to overpower Arizona State.”

The Sun Devils’ (4-1) style was reminiscent of the Wolfpack’s during Sendek’s 10 years in Raleigh: grinding, tempo-controlling and defense-focused.

As a result, score was knotted 41-41 with 13:48 left when the Blue Devils hunkered down and started getting the ball to Kyle Singler, the preseason ACC Player of the Year who had only four points on 1-for-6 shooting by halftime. After making a jumper and a hook shot, his 3-pointer gave the Blue Devils a 50-43 cushion, continuing a 19-6 run that was enough to pull away, for good.

“Singler, who was not having a good shooting night, after that timeout in the second half, for him to come out and hit those two buckets right away – I think that’s better,’’ Krzyzewski said. “It’s nicer if you go 9-for-12, but when you can hit two in a row after going 1-for-11 or whatever he was, when the score is tied, that’s very, very good.”

Singler finished with 13 points and 5 assists, teammate Jon Scheyer led the team with16 points and 6 assists, and Nolan Smith chipped in 14 points.

Derek Glasser and Trent Lockett scored 13 points apiece for ASU. Eric Boateng, who played his freshman year at Duke before transferring to Arizona State after the 2005-06 season, finished with four points and eight turnovers.

Although ASU lost All-American James Harden and first-team All-Pac-10 forward Jeff Pendergraph from last year’s NCAA squad, it also returned three starters – and it looked like it from the outset.

Duke trailed by as much as 15-7 early, as the Sun Devils specialized in turning loose balls into buckets. The Blue Devils chipped back with an 11-3 run, tying it 18-18 when freshman guard Andre Dawkins buried a 3-pointer.

Meanwhile, Scheyer, the starting point guard who had 21 assists and zero turnovers through Duke’s first four games, turned it over for the first time this season during that run when he stepped on the sideline in front of ASU’s bench with 11:58 left.

He made up for it, though.

Duke took the lead with about 5:40 left in the first half, when Scheyer buried a long jumper from the corner to make it 24-23. ASU kept responding, as Rihards Kuksiks’s 3-pointer knotted it at 28-28 with 2:59 left.

But the Blue Devils took a 34-30 lead into halftime when Brian Zoubek buried a free throw, and Scheyer buried a 3-pointer.

ASU scored only 38 points in the final 35 minutes of the game.

“I think the difference in the game was their defensive effort in the second half,’’ Sendek said. Asked if he had any flashbacks to when he played Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils in ACC play, he said: “I certainly didn’t forget any of those games, but our focus was on tonight’s game.”

No. 7 DUKE 64, ARIZONA STATE 53

Percentages: FG .383, FT .682. 3-Point goals: 2-13, .154 (Glasser 1-2, Kuksiks 1-6, McMillan 0-2, Abbott 0-3). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 1 (McMillan). Turnovers: 14 (Boateng 9, Glasser 2, Kuksiks, Pateev, Abbott). Steals: 7 (Glasser 3, McMillan 2, Kuksiks, Lockett). Technical fouls: none.

Percentages: FG .418, FT .778. 3-point goals: 4-18, .222 (Dawkins 2-3, Scheyer 1-4, Singler 1-5, Smith 0-6). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 4 (Mi.Plumlee 4). Turnovers: 14 (Zoubek 3, Smith 3, Thomas 3, Singler 3, Dawkins, Scheyer). Steals: 3 (Zoubek, Kelly, Singler). Technical fouls: none.

Att.-na. Officials-Tim Higgins, Bernard Clinton, Ed Corbett.

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