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No. 2 Duke Destroys Texas

November 23, 2000 / 12:20 AM EST / CBS/AP

For Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, win No. 501 couldn't have been easier.

The No. 2 Blue Devils never let Texas in the game Wednesday night, soundly defeating the Longhorns 95-69 to reach the finals of the Preseason NIT.

Duke (3-0) will meet Temple (4-0) in the championship game Friday night. The Owls advanced with a 69-61 victory over Indiana, which will play Texas in the third-place game.

"I was really pleased with our defense tonight," said Krzyzewski, who reached the 500-win plateau last week against Villanova. "Our defensive rebounding was the key. It got us fast break opportunities."

And Duke didn't miss many of those chances.

The Blue Devils beat Texas off the boards 47-38 with Carlos Boozer grabbing 11. That repeatedly set the offense in motion. And with Duke playing fundamentally sound basketball at both ends of the court, it wore Texas down early.

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The Blue Devils scored the game's first seven points and steadily increased the lead to as many as 20 points in the first half. It reached 31 in the second half.

Nate James scored the first three baskets of the game and in what seemed like no time, Duke had a 20-8 lead that just increased after that. James led all scorers with 26.

"Nate was incredibly efficient," Krzyzewski said. "He didn't have the ball in his hands more than 30 or 40 seconds. He got some open looks. Our guys look for him. Nate got the ball and knocked them down."

Shane Battier, Boozer, Jason Williams and Mike Dunleavy quickly picked up the pace for the Blue evils, taking turns at shredding the Texas defense. Williams had 20 and Battier 16.

Duke led 46-29 at the half and then ran off an 18-4 spurt at the start of the second half to put Texas away.

"I thought our team played well overall," Krzyzewski said.

Brandon Mouton led Texas (2-1) with 18 and Maurice Evans had 17.

Duke, making its fourth appearance in the Preseason NIT, will be bidding for its first championship here since the inaugural tournament in 1985, when the Blue Devils defeated Kansas.

Temple will be playing in the championship for the first time.