Duke hammers N.C. State for fourth straight ACC crown

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Posted 3:25PM on Sunday, March 10, 2002

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Duke is cornering the market on Atlantic Coast Conference basketball history. The third-ranked Blue Devils became the first program in the 49 years of the ACC tournament to win four straight championships as Carlos Boozer scored 26 points, Jason Williams added 24 and Mike Dunleavy had 18 in a 91-61 victory over North Carolina State on Sunday. The 6-foot-9, 280-pound Boozer was 11-for-12 from the field and finished 20-of-24 in three tournament games. He was 33-for-39 in three games this season against N.C. State. Boozer missed the first shot of the game, then made 11 straight to dominate the Wolfpack, who were led by Anthony Grundy's 13 points. Second-seeded Duke (29-3) had its ACC-record streak of five consecutive regular-season titles snapped by Maryland, who was upset by the Wolfpack (22-10) in the semifinals Saturday. That set up the first meeting in the finals between the Blue Devils and Wolfpack since 1966. But like Duke's 19- and 37-point wins over N.C. State in the regular season, this one wasn't much of a game as Duke nailed down its fifth straight No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Duke's 63.5 percent shooting set a championship game record and its winning margin was the second-largest in tourney history. Mike Krzyzewski emptied his bench with about four minutes left and received hugs from each of his starters. Williams scored eight points and Boozer had seven in the opening 6:32 as the Blue Devils made nine of 14 shots against Herb Sendek's zone defense. That proved to be a mistake against a Duke team that prides itself on ball movement and penetration. And while Duke was hot, the fourth-seeded Wolfpack were not, appearing passive against a school it hasn't beaten in 13 tries. N.C. State shot a combined 60 percent in tournament wins over Virginia and Maryland, but missed 14 of its first 18 shots in its first ACC final since 1997 and fell behind 29-14. A 14-4 run did help pull the Wolfpack within five points, but Dunleavy scored nine points over the final 3:03 of the half, hitting two 3-pointers and converting a three-point play to send N.C. State to the locker room down 46-32. Duke's big three - Boozer, Williams and Dunleavy - combined for 38 of Duke's 46 points in the half. A 3-pointer by Williams less than three minutes into the second half gave Duke its biggest lead to that point at 18. Williams' shot bounced high on the rim twice before falling though the net. The All-American just turned, smiled and looked to the sky. His fastbreak layup two minutes later gave the Blue Devils a 20-point lead en route to their 12th straight ACC tournament win. Ten of those victories have been by double digits and Duke has won its titles by 23, 13, 26 and 30 points. Only N.C. State (1954-56) and North Carolina (1967-69) had won three consecutive championships before Duke's current run.