Henderson’s big second half helps Duke beat Southern Illinois 83-58

Posted On: November 20, 2008 By: Cliff Comments: (zero)

It was a tale of two halves for the Duke Blue Devils on Wednesday night as they defeated the Southern Illinois Salukis 83-58 at Madison Square Garden. Things sure weren’t looking good for the Blue Devils in the first half however as they struggled from the floor and had turnover after turnover it seemed like.

At halftime it was a 29-23 lead for the Blue Devils but in the second half they came out and played lights out as the scored 54 points in the second half to pull away for the victory. Gerald Henderson scored all 20 of his points in the second half and had a thunderous dunk that got the MSG crowd up off their feet. Kyle Singler scored 13 points which all came in the second half as well. Jon Scheyer was right there with Singler as he put in 13 points as well.

Brian Zoubek was the only other Blue Devil player that scored in double figures and he scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. It was a pretty good game for Zoubek, the best he has played so far this season.

Nolan Smith did have an awesome dunk in the game as well. Instead of giving the ball up and grabbing an assist, he took it hard to the basket and threw down a one handed dunk over two Saluki players. Up to that point the Blue Devils were playing sloppy and appeared to not be up for the game. I feel that Smith’s dunk got the team and the crowd into the game and that is when the Blue Devils started playing a lot better.

Now the team will await the winner of UCLA and Michigan who are playing now. I expect UCLA to come away with the win and then we will have a classic early season matchup against Duke. This will be a great game for Duke no matter if they win or lose. It will be one of those games that really get you ready for conference and post season play.

Are you looking for some tickets to upcoming Duke games? Grab them now before prices get to much more expensive with the holiday season coming up.

Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes