Duke Wins, but Lexington Is Not Old Kentucky Home

A note to C.M. Newton, athletic director at Kentucky.

Dear C.M.:

Don’t bother to call Joe Alleva, our athletic director, to try to schedule a basketball game.

Signed,

Mike Krzyzewski, coach, Duke University.

The Blue Devils were booed again, won again and headed back to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16 again Sunday, and all things considered, it wasn’t such a bad weekend at Rupp Arena.

Roshown McLeod scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds for top-seeded Duke, which wanted to play anywhere besides Lexington, but ignored a hostile crowd and made some big shots down the stretch to beat Oklahoma State, 79-73, in the second round of the South Regional.

The Blue Devils (31-3) are back in the round of 16 for the first time since 1994, when they completed a run of eight such appearances in nine years. They will play Syracuse, which beat New Mexico, 56-46, in Sunday’s second game, on Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

When they look back on their weekend, the Blue Devils will remember the crowds’ taunts and a tough final game against eighth-seeded Oklahoma State (22-7), which stayed close but wore down at the end.

“It was pretty good,” Krzyzewski said, summing up his stay in Lexington, where he said he didn’t want to play because second-seeded Kentucky, playing at Atlanta, is also in the South Regional.

“I’m not sure I’ll be back soon, unless the [NCAA tournament] committee wants me to come back. We expected to be booed, and that was not a big thing.”

Duke’s depth was the deciding thing. The Blue Devils led the entire second half, pushing their advantage to 11 points, and were much fresher in the closing minutes when Oklahoma State got within a basket.

Joe Adkins, who led the Cowboys with 20 points, made two free throws to cut it to 69-66 with 3:26 to play. But Adrian Peterson, the Cowboys’ leading scorer, missed a three-point shot and a driving layup on consecutive possessions and his last four shots overall and the comeback came up short.

Peterson finished with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting.

“Pete didn’t have a good shooting afternoon,” Coach Eddie Sutton said. “Late in the game, we ran some special plays for him. That’s what happens to you many times when you get tired. You’ll miss easy shots.”

“Maybe it [tiredness] caused me to miss some shots, but I’m not going to make excuses,” Peterson said.

Duke made seven of eight free throws in the final 40 seconds to clinch Krzyzewski’s 42nd tournament win.