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Blue Devils Rally Past Hurricanes

The Associated Press

Miami's Jack McClinton led his team with 34 points, but Duke won 78-75 in overtime.

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The Associated Press

Published: February 8, 2009

DURHAM, N.C. - Everyone wondered how long it would take Duke to recover from its blowout loss at Clemson. It turned out the fourth-ranked Blue Devils needed about a half to find themselves again.

Duke trailed by 16 points in the second half before Gerald Henderson and David McClure sparked a comeback to beat Miami 78-75 in overtime Saturday, sending the Blue Devils into next week's rivalry game against North Carolina with some restored confidence.

Henderson scored 18 of his 19 points after halftime for the Blue Devils (20-3, 7-2 ACC), including the go-ahead basket with 3:16 left in overtime. Meanwhile, reserve David McClure had a career-high 13 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass after halftime that helped the Blue Devils get back in the game.

It wasn't the dominating performance many would have expected from Duke coming off a 74-47 loss against the 10th-ranked Tigers, its worst defeat since a 30-point loss to UNLV in the 1990 NCAA championship game. The Blue Devils shot the ball poorly, couldn't grab a rebound for the first half and at times looked about as lost as they did Wednesday night.

This time, the Blue Devils had a response.

"You don't put the Clemson game in the closet, because it will come out at another time," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You don't sweep it under the rug. It has to be cleaned up, and it has to be destroyed - sometimes in a short period of time. It takes a combination, but the best place for it to occur was out on the court, which it did.

"I think we've put Clemson to rest. How we go forward will be based on the foundation of heart that we showed and guts in the last 22 minutes."

Jon Scheyer led Duke with 22 points, while Kyle Singler shook off a terrible shooting day to come up with a key overtime basket that kept the Blue Devils in control once Miami (15-8, 4-6) stumbled in the extra period. Duke also got 18 points from senior Greg Paulus, who started at the point for the first time in nearly two months.

Duke trailed by 13 at halftime after shooting 6-for-31 (19 percent), then fell behind 38-22 barely 3 minutes into the second half before rallying with a 24-4 run.

"We came out today and showed some character and fight in the second half," Paulus said. "I don't think you can forget about Clemson, and winning this one game isn't going to make you forget about that."

Jack McClinton scored a season-high 34 points for Miami, including a 3-pointer over McClure and Singler to force overtime with 14.8 seconds left. Duke had a chance for the win in regulation, but Scheyer missed a 3 in the final seconds.

Once in OT, Henderson scored over Dwayne Collins inside for a 70-68 lead, then Singler - who finished 5-for-23 from the field - drove in for a score two possessions later to push the margin to four. Henderson added a tough step-back jumper over Collins to make it 74-68 with 51.9 seconds to play.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, missed their first five shots before McClinton hit a 3 with 31.1 seconds left that cut the lead to three. Miami got no closer, with Paulus making two free throws with 10.2 seconds left to seal the win.

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