Duhon Does It for No. 1 Duke

The play wasn’t designed for Chris Duhon, but the senior wanted to take the big shot.

With Florida State trailing by two points in the final minute, Duhon made a three-point basket with 36.4 seconds left, helping No. 1 Duke hold off the Seminoles, 56-49, Thursday night at Durham, N.C.

The Blue Devils (17-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) have won 14 in a row overall and 37 in a row at home. They are the only unbeaten team in ACC play.

“This is my team, it’s my senior year,” said Duhon, who scored 11 points. “I just wanted to take the big shot. I was looking to take the shot the whole time.”

Tim Pickett had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Florida State (14-6, 3-4), which was trying to beat a top-10 team in three consecutive games for the first time in school history. The Seminoles, who had beaten North Carolina and Wake Forest in the last week, fell to 0-14 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Seminoles had beaten the Blue Devils at Tallahassee in each of the past two seasons. But they had done badly at Cameron, losing their 13 previous games by an average of 21 points.

They played scrappy defense in this one and gave Duke one of its toughest challenges since taking the No. 1 ranking two weeks ago.

Duke shot only 39%, but got the one from Duhon when it counted.

“They played good defense and we played good defense,” Pickett said. “Duhon made a great shot ... and we never recovered from that.”

No. 10 Gonzaga 85, San Diego 73 -- Cory Violette scored 10 of his 20 points during a 16-4 run to close the first half, helping the Bulldogs rally from an 11-point deficit at San Diego.

Adam Morrison also scored 20 for the Bulldogs (16-2, 6-0 West Coast Conference), who won their ninth in a row.

It was the first meeting between the teams since San Diego upset Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament championship game here on March 10 to advance to the NCAA tournament..

The Toreros (3-17, 0-5), who lost four starters off that team, lost their ninth consecutive game.

Gonzaga’s biggest lead was 61-49 with 12:50 left after a three-point play by Morrison. The Toreros closed to within 68-65 with 6:06 left before the Bulldogs pulled away again.

No. 19 Wake Forest 93, Maryland 85 -- Freshman Chris Paul scored 25 points to help the Demon Deacons (12-4, 3-3 ACC) get past the Terrapins (11-6, 2-4) at Winston-Salem, N.C., and end their four-game losing streak.

Wake Forest appeared to have clinched the victory when Paul’s three-point basket with 2:23 left gave the Demon Deacons an 82-75 lead, but a flurry of late Terrapin three-pointers -- two from John Gilchrist and one from Mike Jones -- made the final margin close.

Maryland blew a 53-43 halftime lead, thanks to 14 turnovers.

Seven of them came early in the second half when Wake Forest got back into the game.