Toward the end of the first half, it looked like the magic might have been there again. The Cavaliers had kept the game close against No. 2 Duke and even took the lead, 30-28, with just under eight minutes remaining in the first stanza.
But Duke's strong post play and solid defense proved too much for Virginia (10-3, 0-2 ACC) in the second half and the Cavaliers' hopes of playing Cinderella for the third time in four years against Duke at home vanished as the Blue Devils (12-1, 2-0) pulled away for a 93-71 victory Sunday night.
Sheldon Williams led Duke with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 17 of those points in a second half that saw the Blue Devils decisively outscore (47-33), outshoot (51.7 to 45.2 percent) and out-rebound (23-11) the Cavaliers.
The capacity crowd that had made its presence known several times in the first half started filing out with five minutes left as the Blue Devils extended their lead to 20 points.
"The crowd was there for us tonight," junior center Elton Brown said."We just didn't live up to it."
Junior forward Devin Smith led the Cavaliers with 19 points, including 5-6 shooting from three-point range. Smith did not receive much help from his supporting cast. The rest of the squad shot a combined 1-13 on three pointers. Sophomore forward Derrick Byars got into foul trouble early and failed to score in 10 minutes of play. Senior guard Todd Billet was limited to two points and 1-5 shooting from the field.
"Devin Smith was tremendous," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "But we needed somebody else of our veterans to give us a good boost. Duke's the No. 2 team in the country -- maybe the best team in the country. Devin was great, but we really needed one of the veteran guys to give us some real good juice."
Brown finished second on the team with 13 points but made only three field goals and grabbed a paltry four rebounds. The Blue Devils had much more success down low, outscoring the Cavaliers 54-32 in the paint.
"The big guy kicked us inside," Gillen said. "Sheldon Williams took it to us right under the chin. We doubled him at times, but they just continued to kick us inside."
Duke jumped out to a 14-8 advantage to start the game but couldn't extend their lead to any more than seven points for the first 19 minutes. Trailing 28-24 after a pair of J.J. Reddick free throws, Billet and Brown each hit a pair of their own from the line in successive possessions to tie the score with eight and a half minutes left in the first half.
Brown drained another two free throws the next time down the floor to give the Cavaliers a 30-28 lead 30 seconds later. Duke answered back with an 11-2 run to pull ahead by seven with just over three minutes until the break.
Virginia narrowed the Blue Devil advantage to four after freshman forward Donte Minter's post-up lay-in with 1:05 remaining in the first half. Freshman guard T.J. Bannister drew a charge on Duke's next possession to give the Cavaliers the ball and a chance to narrow the lead even further before the break, but a pair of Virginia turnovers led to four more Duke points and a 46-38 Blue Devil lead at the half.
"The key to the game was the last two or three minutes of the first half," Gillen said. "I thought when it was 30-30 we had the chance. We could have gone up a little bit and made it a real war, and then who knows?"
The Blue Devils opened the second stanza with a 17-7 run to establish an 18-point lead less than five minutes into the half. The Cavaliers were able to cut the lead to 11 a few minutes later, but failed to trim the Duke advantage to single digits for the remainder of the contest.
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