Duke Wins by Going to Capel and Chappell

As senior guard Jeff Capel played his final game for Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium Thursday night in Durham, N.C., freshman forward Mike Chappell provided a glimpse of the Blue Devils’ future.

Capel had 18 points in No. 7-ranked Duke’s 81-69 victory over No. 16 Maryland, while Chappell scored all 10 of his points in a second half in which the Atlantic Coast Conference-leading Blue Devils slowly pulled way.

“I basically just wanted to get in the game and make an impact any way possible, be it offensively or defensively,” said Chappell, who is averaging four points. “I just wanted to leave a mark on the game.”

Duke, 23-6 overall and 12-3 in conference, have a one-game lead over No. 5 Wake Forest and can earn the No. 1 seeding in next week’s ACC tournament by defeating No. 8 North Carolina Sunday at Chapel Hill, N.C. Wake Forest plays Florida State on Saturday at Tallahassee, Fla.

Maryland (20-8, 9-6) had 26 turnovers in continuing a slide that started with a Jan. 30 loss to Florida State. The Terrapins have lost six of nine and fallen from a share of first place to fourth.

No. 4 Utah 68, Texas El Paso 55--Forward Keith Van Horn had only 12 points but the Utes (22-3, 14-1) still managed a comfortable Western Athletic Conference victory over the Miners (5-10, 12-13) at Salt Lake City.

In a ceremony before the game, Van Horn was given the ball from last Saturday’s Utah-Tulsa game for becoming the school’s scoring leader with 2,358 points, 37 more than than Billy “The Hill” McGill in 1960-62.

No. 9 Cincinnati 80, Marquette 74--Forward Danny Fortson, who had a season-low four points and fouled out in his previous game, had 26 points for the Bearcats (24-5, 12-1) in the Conference USA game at Milwaukee. Cincinnati was without starting guards Damon Flint (injured wrist) and Charles Williams (violation of a team rule).

Guard Anthony Pieper had 23 points for Marquette (17-8, 8-5).

No. 11 New Mexico 90, Brigham Young 48--Reserve guard Lamont Long scored 20 of his 24 points in a second half of the WAC game at Provo, Utah in which the Lobos (22-5, 11-4) shot 84%. New Mexico put BYU (1-24, 0-15) away with a 17-0 run to start the second half.

No. 14 Xavier 83, St. Bonaventure 59--The Musketeers (21-4, 12-3) used their full-court pressure to force the Bonnies (13-12, 5-10) into five consecutive turnovers during a 13-0 run that helped produce a 52-32 first-half lead in the Atlantic 10 game at Cincinnati.

No. 20 Charleston 89, Centenary 71--Forward Stacy Harris led four double-figure scorers with 22 points as the Cougars (26-2) extended the nation’s longest win streak to 20 games in the first round of the Trans America Athletic Conference tournament at Charleston, S.C. Centenary finished its season at 9-18.

OTHER GAMES

Paul Cluxton of Division II Northern Kentucky set an NCAA record with his 75th consecutive free throw in a 101-86 victory over Southern Illinois Edwardsville. The longest Division I streak is 64 by Western Illinois’ Joe Dykstra in 1981-82. . . . Donnie Carr, the nation’s fourth-leading scorer at 23.5 points a game, had a personal-best 41 as La Salle (10-15, 5-10) was a 94-73 Atlantic 10 winner over Fordham (6-19, 1-14) in Philadelphia. . . . Forward Michael Ruffin had 30 points and 24 rebounds to lead Tulsa (21-8, 11-4) to a 128-84 WAC victory over Texas Christian (17-11, 6-9) at Fort Worth.