Redick Gets His Fill as Duke Wins

At one point in Saturday’s game, J.J. Redick turned to his hapless defender and mouthed something to him after raining down another in a seemingly endless string of spectacular long-range jump shots.

“I just told him that I was filling it up, that’s all,” Redick said later. “I wanted to let everybody know that I was filling it up.”

It was hardly necessary.

For the Duke senior, actions spoke louder than words.

Redick turned a rare regular-season matchup of college basketball’s No. 1- and No. 2-ranked teams into a personal showcase.

In a bravura performance, the All-American guard made a career-high nine three-point baskets, scored a career-high 41 points and led the top-ranked and unbeaten Blue Devils to a 97-66 rout of second-ranked and previously unbeaten Texas in front of a sellout crowd of 19,579 in Continental Airlines Arena.

“As good as they come,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Redick’s sterling effort. “For me, it’s up there with any that any kid has had for me.”

The top two teams in the Associated Press poll, which debuted in January 1949, had met in the regular season only 18 times previously, the last time on Feb. 5, 1998, when second-ranked North Carolina knocked off Duke.

And Duke and Texas brought 8-0 records to the Meadowlands.

But Duke, which got 23 points and six rebounds from senior forward Shelden Williams, led almost from start to finish, moving ahead for good at 7-6 on a three-point basket by Redick in the game’s third minute.

Texas had limited its first eight opponents to an average of 36.3% shooting and 55.6 points a game, but Duke made 53.4% of its shots and almost surely would have scored more than 100 points for the first time this season if Krzyzewski hadn’t cleared his bench after the outcome was no longer in doubt.

“We’re ecstatic about our performance,” Krzyzewski said. “Our kids really responded well. We had a good feeling that we would be as prepared as we could be for the game. Of course, we never expected that we would win like this.”

Indeed, it was the most lopsided result in a game matching the top two teams in the AP poll since March 22, 1968, when second-ranked UCLA crushed Houston, 101-69, in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament at the Sports Arena.

No other No. 1 vs. No. 2 regular-season pairing was more one-sided except the first, in January 1951, when top-ranked Kentucky defeated St. John’s, 81-40.

Coach Rick Barnes called it an embarrassing result for Texas.

The Longhorns, 0-6 against top-ranked teams, got 21 points and six rebounds from sophomore LaMarcus Aldridge. P.J. Tucker and Kenton Paulino, a senior guard from Los Angeles Fremont High, each scored 14 points.

Redick made 13 of 24 shots, nine of 16 from beyond the three-point arc, and all six of his free throws. His third three-pointer gave him more than 2,000 points in his career, making him the ninth Duke player to reach the milestone.

“For me, it’s just about a mentality of aggression for 40 minutes, from start to finish,” Redick said. “Coach [assistant Johnny] Dawkins always talks to me about not turning myself off -- just to be on at all times.”

Texas, down by 12 points at halftime, closed to within 47-42 early in the second half before Krzyzewski, during a timeout, sent his team a stern message.

“It was basically that we had let up,” Redick said.

The Blue Devils had failed to impress in two home games last week, needing a buzzer-beating three-point shot to defeat Virginia Tech in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener and easing past Pennsylvania.

This time, they answered Krzyzewski’s challenge with a 24-4 run that was led, of course, by Redick, who made four three-point shots and scored 14 points in about 4 1/2 minutes, leaving the Longhorns to wonder what hit them.

“Special players do amazing things in these types of situations,” said Krzyzewski, whose teams are 17-1 at the Meadowlands. “And he’s a special player.”