EAST REGIONAL : Duke Too Much by Half in Ousting Iowa Again

GREENSBORO, N.C. —  The Duke student section seemed to have the right idea when it began taunting overmatched Iowa late in the first half of Saturday’s East Regional game at Greensboro Coliseum.

As the No. 1-ranked Blue Devils stretched their lead to 26 points with 3:27 still left to play in the opening period, the visiting Cameron Crazies began their chant.

“ Campbell’s better ,” mocked the fans, referring to 16th-seeded Campbell University, the Blue Devils’ victims two nights earlier. “ Campbell’s smarter .”

That’s not exactly true. Iowa eventually came within viewing distance of the Duke lead--eight points--before losing, 75-62. The Hawkeyes pressed. They forced turnovers. They caused the usually unflappable Blue Devils to fight among themselves.

And still, they lost by 13 points.

“They do so many things, they have so many dimensions,” said Iowa Coach Tom Davis, who would know. For the second consecutive season, his ninth-seeded Hawkeyes were eliminated from the tournament by Duke.

Few teams could do what the Blue Devils (30-2) did in the first half and jog into the locker room with a 48-24 lead. Duke shot only 37.8% from the field. All-American center Christian Laettner had only seven points and missed five of his eight shots.

But for every botched offensive opportunity, the Blue Devils, who will face Seton Hall in Thursday’s East Regional semifinal at Philadelphia, acquitted themselves with their suffocating defensive pressure. The Hawkeyes (19-11) couldn’t do a thing in the first 20 minutes. Their first-half statistics read like a Poe screamer.

A 29% field goal mark . . . 13 turnovers . . . nine rebounds by All-Big Ten performer Acie Earl and zero from any of his teammates . . . a three-foul, eight-minute performance from sophomore forward Chris Street, a vital part of the Iowa system.

“We were psyched,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “(We) were going like crazy.”

At one point, the Blue Devils prevented the Hawkeyes from scoring a field goal for nearly nine minutes of the fateful first half. During that time, the Duke lead ballooned from one to 16 points.

Iowa appeared helpless. The usually reliable Earl once found himself near midcourt, where, for reasons unknown, he calmly tossed the ball to Duke forward Brian Davis, who converted the turnover into two points. Lip-readers could have had a field day with the angry Earl.

But unlike tiny Campbell, which was unable to mount much of a second-half comeback against Duke, the Hawkeyes persisted. With Street back in the lineup and Earl, who scored only four points during the opening period, working himself free, Iowa made things much too interesting for the Blue Devils.

What was once a 48-24 lead was trimmed to 52-36 with 13:22 remaining in the game. The 12-4 Hawkeye run was disturbing enough to cause Laettner and point guard Bobby Hurley to argue on the bench during a timeout.

“We had a mental lapse there in the second half, especially me,” Hurley said.

It got worse for Duke. The Hawkeyes, their press finally working, forced several turnovers and went on a 14-0 run, this time cutting the Duke lead to 59-51. Plenty of time--8:34--remained when Krzyzewski requested another timeout.

“We had just cut it to eight,” Iowa forward Wade Lookingbill said, “and we thought we could keep it going.”

They couldn’t. The Blue Devils started to look for Laettner, always a safe choice. Laettner couldn’t have been happier.

“When it was eight points, my teammates might have been a little scared to take the shot,” Laettner said. “(It was), ‘Get the ball to Christian.’ ”

In the final eight minutes, Laettner scored nine points. He finished with 19, enough to move him into second place on the all-time NCAA tournament scoring list (333 points in 19 games). Only Houston’s Elvin Hayes (358 points, 13 games) is ahead of him.

Seton Hall 88, Missouri 71--As rewards go, Seton Hall Coach P.J. Carlesimo might have preferred a simple round of applause or perhaps a tasteful loving cup for leading the Pirates (23-8) to a second-round victory against Missouri.

Instead, he gets Duke.

“I think what lies ahead for us is the best team in the country,” Carlesimo said. “But we’re pretty good.”

Missouri can attest to that. The Tigers (21-9) were unable to stop Seton Hall’s inside game, or much of anything else for that matter. Pirate center Jerry Walker scored 19 points, most of them coming from point-blank range or from the free-throw line, where Seton Hall players spent much of their time Saturday.

Five Seton Hall players scored in double figures, led by Terry Dehere with 20. But the Pirates earned 30 points (in 38 attempts) from the foul line. Missouri had only nine chances and scored eight.

Missouri trailed by three, 36-33, at halftime. Carlesimo then instructed his team to start working the ball inside to Walker. And if that didn’t work, Carlesimo wanted Dehere and Bryan Caver to start driving to the basket. Anything to draw fouls.

It worked. Two Tigers fouled out and another four had four fouls.

“It couldn’t have gone any better,” Carlesimo said.