NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Duke Gets High on the Hogs : Blue Devils: Henderson scores 28 and big men make big plays as Duke runs away from Arkansas in the second half for 97-83 victory.

Duke survived Arkansas’ “Forty Minutes of Hell.” Now, the Blue Devils are only one step away from ending their own hell in the Final Four.

Phil Henderson scored 28 points for the Blue Devils, who beat Arkansas, 97-83, in a battle of conditioning and wills in the NCAA championship semifinals Saturday.

Not only did the altitude of this Mile High City take its toll on the players, but so did Arkansas’ all-out running game and full-court press, thus the Razorback’s rallying cry: “Forty Minutes of Hell.”

This time, though, those 40 minutes took a costlier toll on Arkansas. Both the Razorbacks’ centers played the entire second half in foul trouble. Starter Mario Credit fouled out with 6:22 to play and substitute Oliver Miller went out shortly thereafter, giving Duke a huge size advantage.

“It was a physical game,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I can see how they wore people down during the season.”

When Credit picked up his fifth foul against Christian Laettner, the score was tied at 77. Laettner, who had four fouls himself, hit the foul shot, and Duke led, 78-77. The Blue Devils (29-8) then outscored Arkansas 11-4 for an 89-81 lead, and the game was in hand.

“At the end, when we should have had some patience, we panicked,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. “I thought our youth started to show toward the end.”

Now, the Blue Devils move into Monday night’s NCAA title game with a chance to end a long string of failures. Duke has been to the Final Four eight times, including the last three seasons and four of the past five. Never, though, have the Blue Devils won a national title.

With Arkansas’ two centers out of the game, the Blue Devils went to their own strong front line of Laettner and Alaa Abdelnaby. Laettner had 19 points, despite playing the final 13:25 with four fouls, and Abdelnaby had 20.

Todd Day had 27 points for Arkansas, but failed to score in the final 8:44, and Lenzie Howell had 18. The only other player in double figures was Lee Mayberry with 12. Miller finished with three and Credit had just five.

“We played like a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,” Mayberry said.

Twice, Arkansas trailed by 11 points and came back, the final time with 16:40 left after Duke scored the first eight points of the second half. Arkansas ran off nine consecutive points to pull within two, and finally tied the score at 60 on Day’s three-pointer with 12:46 to play.

“When teams like Arkansas make runs, they like to score in flurries,” Abdelnaby said. “I thought in this situation, our experience paid off.”

Howell’s three-pointer with 6:58 to play tied the score at 77, but the Blue Devils then outscored the Razorbacks 20-6 to end the game. Abdelnaby had six of Duke’s points as the Blue Devils took an 84-81 lead, then Henderson hit seven in a row for Duke, giving the Blue Devils a 93-83 lead.

A three-pointer by Henderson with 4:02 left put the Blue Devils up 87-81.

“You always remember certain things about a game,” Krzyzewski said. “And what I’ll always remember about this one is how long it took Phil to shoot that three-pointer.”

Henderson said he had trouble with his hands getting cold during the game, and that gave him trouble shooting.

“I knew that last three-pointer was a big one, though,” Henderson said. “I squared up and just tried to concentrate. I didn’t realize it took me as long as they said it did.”

Duke led by 11 points with just 4:40 gone after scoring 16 of the game’s first 21 points--including six by Abdelnaby--but Arkansas battled back to trail only 46-43 at halftime.

Arkansas’s first-half recovery wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. And the Razorbacks did it with both Miller and Credit saddled with three fouls.

Arkansas’ feared full-court press did not force a Duke turnover until there were nearly eight minutes gone in the game. But by the end of the first half, it had forced eight turnovers and was beginning to tire the Duke players, particularly point guard Bobby Hurley.

Still trailing, 25-15, Arkansas outscored Duke 10-4 to pull within 29-25 with 6:07 left on a basket by Credit. The Razorbacks actually pulled even at 43 on a 25-foot three-pointer by reserve guard Ernie Murray with 55 seconds to play.

The Blue Devils got a pair of free throws from Henderson and another by Laettner to lead by three at intermission.