bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Brian Zoubek would be quite the menacing figure atop a baseball mound, yet his 7-foot frame and well-worn beard haven't always been all that imposing on the basketball court.
Saturday afternoon, just a two-buck subway ride from Fenway Park, the Duke Blue Devils called on Zoubek to close out a victory over Boston College.
This time, Zoubek delivered.
With a game that Duke seemed to have in the bag suddenly hanging in the balance, Zoubek left the paint to close out on Joe Trapani's potential game-tying shot, forcing Trapani to take a much more difficult 3-pointer that had little chance of going in at the buzzer as the Blue Devils held on for a 66-63 victory at Conte Forum.
"That's a play I probably wouldn't have made in my younger years -- experience teaches you," said Zoubek, who also played a pivotal role in giving Duke a semi-comfortable lead in the first place. "You've got to know the gameplan. You've got to know Trapani is probably going to want to shoot it at the end of the game. And up three, we can allow a two.
"I thought I did a good job, and then I turned around and I saw it was way off. I was happy."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski also was happy after his senior helped save the day. The No. 10 Blue Devils (19-4, 7-2 ACC) had led since the seven-minute mark of the first half, but Krzyzewski had to go deep into his rotation as Boston College (12-11, 3-6) whittled away a 10-point deficit over the final four minutes.
With senior Lance Thomas out with five fouls and brothers Mason and Miles Plumlee out of sorts, Krzyzewski surrounded his big three of Jon Scheyer (21 points), Nolan Smith (21) and Kyle Singler (12) with freshman Ryan Kelly and a two-man platoon of Zoubek on defense and Andre Dawkins on offense.
Boston College trimmed the deficit to 60-56 heading to the final 55 seconds, and every time the Devils scored, the Eagles did them one better. Kelly and Dawkins hit a free throw in the final minute; Trapani (12 points) and Corey Raji (15) answered with two free throws apiece. Smith drilled two free throws, but Reggie Jackson responded with a long, contested 3-pointer with 16 seconds left -- for a team that was 1-of-12 on 3-pointers to that point.
Just like that, the Eagles were within one point.
Scheyer, however, responded by making two free throws (Duke was 11-of-22 from the line before Smith and Scheyer finished 4-of-4), and then Zoubek didn't give Trapani much of a chance in the Eagles' lone opportunity to pull even.
"That's a big-time play," Krzyzewski said. "We have a close-out drill where it doesn't make any difference who you are -- perimeter or big guy -- if you see a shooter, you have to have a sense of urgency. He had the sense of urgency of a senior."
Krzyzewski likened the game to a baseball matinee, where a team leads by a run the whole way but doesn't cash in on multiple opportunities for insurance runs.
The Blue Devils threatened to break it wide open early in the second half behind Zoubek, who finished with just three points and six rebounds but contributed beyond the box score. With Duke up 39-35, Zoubek lunged for an offensive rebound and found Scheyer for a 3-pointer; he got a defensive rebound to set up a Smith jumper; then he capped the 7-0 spurt with a layup to give Duke its largest lead at 46-35.
"Zoobs was terrific," Smith said. "He's moving great, he's rebounding, he's keeping the ball high, he's taking charges. He's doing everything we need him to do.
"We trust him, and we love having him out there on the court."
Rakim Sanders (13 points) didn't allow Duke to get away that time with a couple of driving hoops, and eventually the Eagles got too close for Duke's comfort.
Zoubek, however, helped save the day and the week.
A week ago, the Blue Devils headed home from Washington, D.C., after a demoralizing loss to Georgetown. This time, they headed home with victories over Georgia Tech at home and Boston College on the road -- just their second on-campus road victory -- over the course of three days.
"We got better this week," Krzyzewski said. "To win two games and to win them in 43 hours, I like that about our team.
"That's the kind of stuff we want to build on."
