TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Duke Denies FSU A Title

ADVERTISEMENT

By PAUL NEWBERRY

The Associated Press

Published: March 15, 2009

ATLANTA - A year ago, as they walked off the court after another early exit from the NCAA Tournament, Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson made sure to soak it all in. They didn't want to forget how much it hurt. They didn't want to forget how it felt to be denied a championship.

Sunday, they finally got their title.

Led by its two junior stars, No. 9 Duke swamped upstart Florida State with a barrage of 3-pointers on the way to a 79-69 victory in the title game, giving the Blue Devils their ninth ACC crown in 12 years.

Scheyer scored 29 points and was named tournament MVP, Henderson had 27 and Duke (28-6) turned in one of its most complete performances of the season to keep their Tobacco Road heirloom from heading down to the Sunshine State. It couldn't have come at a better time, with NCAA bids going out later Sunday.

How complete? Duke had more steals (five) than turnovers (four), outrebounded the taller, bulkier Seminoles 35-34 and buried Florida State with a 12 of 25 showing from beyond the arc.

The genesis of this championship can be traced to the final game last season. After losing in the ACC Tournament and surviving a first-round scare from Belmont, the Blue Devils were eliminated in the second round of the NCAAs by West Virginia.

"We wanted to remember that moment. We wanted to remember how it felt," Scheyer said. "That was something we never wanted to experience again. We wanted to do whatever we could to never let it happen again."

The Blue Devils watched hated North Carolina celebrate at the last two ACC Tournaments. Now they're back in a more familiar position.

"We put in a lot of work to build this team to where it is today," Henderson said. "This is such an accomplishment for us. We've waited a long time for it. It feels good."

Toney Douglas led the No. 22 Seminoles (25-9) with 28 points but that wasn't nearly enough to give the school its first ACC championship. Florida State will have to be content with knocking off top-ranked North Carolina in the semifinals and earning its first NCAA bid since 1998.

Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, following up his gold-medal triumph as coach of the U.S. Olympic team, captured the 11th conference championship of his career.

"We'll look at what we did wrong, learn from it and grow," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Duke is more mature team overall. But I think we'll be fine."

"Yeah," Douglas added with a smile, "we'll be fine."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT