Duke Defense a Force in Win Over Illinois

The top scoring team in the nation the last two years won its first test of the season as the nation’s No. 1 team with defense.

Duke (6-0) got 23 points from Jason Williams and 21 from Mike Dunleavy on Tuesday night to defeat No. 9 Illinois, 78-77, at Greensboro, N.C., in the marquee matchup in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

“Thank goodness 18 years ago we decided not to go zone,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our man-to-man defense has been good to us over the years and it was really good for us tonight.”

Williams and Dunleavy matched career highs, while Carlos Boozer, saddled with foul trouble most of the game and limited to three points in the first half, scored 12 in the second.

Frank Williams led Illinois (4-2) with 19 points, but had nine of his team’s 26 turnovers.

“We knew coming into this game we were going to have to protect the ball,” Williams said. “Duke is a great ballclub. But Cory [Bradford] and I just turned the ball over too much. We’re supposed to be one of the top backcourts in the country. We’ve got to have more control than that.”

No. 12 Wake Forest 71, Michigan 60--Robert O’Kelley scored 19 points to lead the Demon Deacons to a come-from-behind victory in an ACC-Big Ten Challenge game at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Michigan (2-2) led by 11 points with 16 minutes to play, but couldn’t hold off the more experienced Demon Deacons (5-0). Wake Forest, last season’s NIT champion, has won 10 consecutive games, second in the nation to Michigan State’s 14 in a row.

No. 16 Connecticut 88, Brown 78--Freshman Caron Butler scored 21 points and Edmund Saunders added a career-high 20 to lead the Huskies (4-1) over the Bears (1-3) at Storrs, Conn.

Butler, one of the nation’s top recruits, was suspended for Connecticut’s first three games for an NCAA violation. The 6-foot-7 swingman also had 12 rebounds, three steals and five assists in his second game for the Huskies.

No. 18 Utah 93, Cardinal Stritch 47--Kevin Bradley and Jeff Johnsen each scored 20 points as the Utes, playing without Coach Rick Majerus, romped at Salt Lake City to extend their home winning streak to 54 games, the longest in NCAA Division I.

Majerus will be out about five weeks to strengthen a surgically repaired knee. He traveled Monday to Las Vegas, where he plans to undergo a rigid two-week rehabilitation program.

After Cardinal Stritch (5-3), an NAIA school from Milwaukee, took a 9-2 lead, Utah Coach Dick Hunsaker replaced the starting lineup except Bradley with Chris Burgess, Britton Johnsen, Trace Caton and Nick Jacobson. That group led Utah (4-1) on a 17-2 run over the next five minutes.

No. 20 Syracuse 73, Colgate 65--Preston Shumpert and DeShaun Williams each scored 21 points to lead the Orangemen at Syracuse, N.Y.

Syracuse (5-0), fresh from its Great Alaska Shootout victory that vaulted the Orangemen into the Top 25, defeated Colgate (1-3) for the 35th consecutive time in the series, which began in 1902.

Syracuse scored the first 14 points and maintained a comfortable lead for most of the game.

No. 25 Arkansas 88, Centenary 57--Joe Johnson scored 19 points to lead the Razorbacks (4-1) over the Gentlemen (2-2) at Fayetteville, Ark.