Online Extra: Seton Hall refuses to fall easy to Blue Devils

By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

MAUI””mdash;The first half looked like another top team was about
to be dethroned.

In the third game of the Maui Invitational, Duke entered the
Lahaina Civic Center with the nation’s No. 1 ranking, and
after seeing Kansas fall 93-91 to un-ranked Ball State, the Blue
Devils should have known it wouldn’t be easy.

And Duke’s 80-79 win was anything but.

Seton Hall took a 37-30 lead at the half after out-shooting the
Blue Devils 31.4 percent and 57.1 percent to 7.7 percent from
beyond the arc ““ the fact that Duke was only down by seven
showed the merit of the Blue Devil program.

“We were knocked back by them,” Duke head coach Mike
Kryzewski said. “We didn’t look like a good team at
first, and they made us look even worse. I thought our team had to
play really well to win.”

Duke missed the defensive presence of center Carlos Boozer for
much of the first half as he went to the bench with three fouls
less than 10 minutes into the game.

Their shots just weren’t falling, and the Pirates used the
quickness of point guard Andre Barrett and the sharp-shooting
ability of 6-foot-10 inch Charles Manga to their advantage.

But once the second half began, Duke came out with their game
faces on.

While Seton Hall clearly outplayed the Blue Devils in the first
half, neither team controlled the game in the second.

And it all came down to the final minute: with 33 seconds on the
clock, the score was tied at 79-79.

After forward Mike Dunleavy rebounded John Allen’s missed
three-pointer, Williams took the ball up the court.

He glanced at the clock, made his move to the bucket and drew
the foul.

With seven seconds on the clock, Williams went to the free throw
line and missed the first one.

And with the conversion of his second attempt, Williams hit the
second to give his team the lead and four seconds later, the
win.

“After the fist free throw, I just wanted to second one to
go in,” Williams said. “It was a gamer down to the end,
and I’m just happy it went in.”

In his first game as head coach at Seton Hall, Louis Orr nearly
upset the No. 1 team.

Not bad for an inaugural game.

“It was a great effort by our guys. You can’t ask
them to do more than they did,” Orr said. “Duke’s
a great team and they fought back and they don’t quit used to
winning.”

Williams finished the game with 27 points, 25 coming in the
second half.