bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
MIAMI -- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and senior Jon Scheyer both hail from baseball-rich Chicago, where their bedeviled Cubs understand one thing for sure: If at first you don't succeed, keep swinging.
Scheyer followed that mantra Wednesday night at Miami, ignoring a 1-for-12 shooting start to hit a pair of late 3-pointers that helped Blue Devils claim an 81-74 victory.
"In baseball, you always marvel at a guy who goes 5-for-5, but sometimes the guy who goes 0-for-4 but then in his fifth at-bat gets the winning hit, those are the guys that are special," Krzyzewski said. "Jon has played with a bad back for a couple of weeks, and I think it affected him somewhat in this game in the first half; he just didn't have his edge. But then when it came down to it, although he didn't have a good shooting night, he hit big shots."
Scheyer has downplayed the back injury he suffered Feb. 4 against Georgia Tech. Wednesday, he put the sixth-ranked Blue Devils on his back for a short but significant stretch on a night when it looked like he had a monkey on it.
Scheyer didn't score in the first half, missing all six of his shots. He hit a 3 early in the second half to tie the score at 39 after Duke had trailed 37-25 at halftime, but then he misfired on his only three attempts over the next nine minutes as even Duke built an eight-point lead.
But after Miami ran off six unanswered points to pull within 54-52 with eight minutes to play, Scheyer got going via one of his trademarks -- drawing a foul on a 3-pointer. He made two of the free throws, and soon after he made two 3s to give Duke some breathing room again.
Just before the late flurry, Scheyer got a pep talk from backcourt mate Nolan Smith, the details of which Scheyer didn't reveal. Smith had a similar night to Scheyer, missing 6 of 7 shots in the first half before scoring 18 of his 21 points in the second half -- including two late 3s shortly after Scheyer's pair.
"I was just in a weird funk," Scheyer said. "I went over to Nolan and said, 'Tell me something.' He told me something. Just having a guy say something, that helped, and I made my next few shots.
"And right before that too, [assistant] coach [Chris] Collins looked at me and said, 'Just shoot it.' It helps to have somebody say that."
Scheyer had been hot from 3-point range of late, hitting 20 of 38 over his previous six games after hitting just 9 of 37 in his five games before that. He hit just 3 of 10 Wednesday but made them when they mattered most.
When the Blue Devils return to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on hard-charging Virginia Tech on Sunday (7:45 p.m., Fox Sports), Scheyer and the Blue Devils might not be able to afford a poor half.
Both teams have lost just four times all season, and the Hokies can catch Duke in the loss column atop the ACC standings with a victory. While Scheyer, Smith and Kyle Singler are the nation's highest-scoring trio and rank fourth, fifth and sixth in scoring in ACC games, they're bookended by Hokies guards Malcolm Delaney (first) and Dorenzo Hudson (seventh) on the scoring list.
"It's obviously a big game, a really big game," Scheyer said. "They have a great backcourt, and it's a great opportunity for our backcourt and for our team.
"To win the league, you have to win games like this. We'll be ready to go Sunday."
