Ball St. Can’t Handle Duke

Duke emphatically ended Ball State’s run of top five upsets.

The top-ranked Blue Devils beat the Cardinals, 83-71, Wednesday, something No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 Kansas couldn’t do the previous two days, and won the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii, for the third time in as many appearances.

“We were just involved in a great basketball game,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “That’s the hottest I’ve ever been in a gym, but that’s great.”

The Blue Devils (3-0) never gave Ball State (2-1) a shot at completing what would have been the best three days a team, especially an unranked one from a mid-major conference, ever had.

“I was just glad to be along for the ride,” second-year Ball State Coach Tim Buckley said. “I was told once that 100 people can handle failure but one in a 100 can handle success. Now we have to see how we handle success.”

Jason Williams led Duke’s defense while coming up with 22 points. Tournament most valuable player Mike Dunleavy shook off first-half foul trouble to play his usual all-around game and had 16 points and nine rebounds. Carlos Boozer was a presence in the middle with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

That’s how Duke pulled away from the team that had stunned college basketball the last two days.

Patrick Jackson led the Cardinals with 21 points.

No. 4 Kansas 80, Seton Hall 62--Nick Collison had 22 points and a career-high 19 rebounds, and the Jayhawks (2-1) took control with a 17-0 second-half run to beat the Pirates (1-2) in the fifth-place game.

Andre Barrett had all 18 of his points on three-pointers for Seton Hall.

Kansas finished with a 57-32 rebound advantage and Seton Hall was 13 for 33 on three-pointers.