No. 3 Duke Tops Tigers, 115-74

Jan. 7, 2001

By DAVID DROSCHAK AP Sports Writer

DURHAM, N.C. – The Atlantic Coast Conference was supposed to be more competitive this season. No. 3 Duke hasn’t gotten the word yet.

The Blue Devils, going for an unprecedented fifth straight ACC regular-season title, routed Clemson 115-74 on Sunday behind 25 points from Carlos Boozer and 21 each from Shane Battier and Nate James.

The 115 points matched the most Duke (13-1, 2-0 ACC) has scored against Clemson in 115 meetings. The Blue Devils also got that many in 1955. It was also the most the Tigers have given up in 31 seasons.

ACC scoring leader Will Solomon (22.1) extended his school record of consecutive double-figure scoring games to 45, but managed just 13 and wasn’t a factor for the Tigers (9-6, 0-2).

Solomon’s streak of scoring 20 or more ended at six games. That was the best mark at Clemson since Horace Grant did it in 1986-87. Tony Stockman led the Tigers with 22.

The victory was the 48th in the last 50 ACC games for the Blue Devils, 24 of which have been by margins of 20 or more points. Duke opened league play with a 27-point victory at Florida State on Thursday night.

And while the Tigers and the Seminoles are two of the lower-tier teams in the ACC, the Blue Devils show no signs of coming back to the pack as they scored a season-high point total Sunday.

This one was close for several minutes before Duke went on a 37-5 run, scoring 18 straight points during one stretch to bury the Tigers, who lost their 10th in a row to the Blue Devils while falling to 4-48 all-time in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

After scoring 92 in a loss to No. 17 Maryland five days ago and getting off a fast start here, Clemson could do nothing right on offense. The Tigers finished the first half shooting 27 percent. They turned the ball over 16 times and were outrebounded 25-15.

Clemson’s scoreless stretch lasted six minutes as the Tigers were 0-for-10 from the field with seven turnovers.

The 29-point halftime deficit could have been worse if Duke was on from the outside. But one of the nation’s best 3-point shooting teams was just 4-for-15 from long range in the opening 20 minutes.

Duke led Clemson 58-16 at halftime in a home game last year.

Clemson coach Larry Shyatt was called for a technical foul when he kicked the scorer’s table with 12:55 left and his team down by 40.