Duke survives scare at Wake Forest with switch to zone - ESPN

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Duke faced a challenge against Wake Forest unlike anything it has seen in nearly three months, and the second-ranked Blue Devils responded with something they hadn't done all season.

Duke erased a six-point second-half deficit after switching to a 2-3 zone defense over the final nine minutes and utterly suffocated the Demon Deacons' scorers to escape with a 63-56 win, its closest result since Dec. 5 and only the third single-digit margin in the Blue Devils' current 13-game winning streak.

«We've kept it in our back pocket just in case,» Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. «It's good to have a curveball, and even if it's maybe not the best zone in the world, we were just trying to stand them up a little bit, and sometimes late in a game, that's what it can do. I give these guys credit because you still have to make it work, and we haven't practiced it too much.»

Duke led by 13 at the half, but the Blue Devils were ice cold from the field when the second half began, and Wake found a groove running a pick-and-roll, going on a 23-4 run to go up six with 9:58 to play.

Duke then took a timeout, and when the Blue Devils returned to the court, it was with a new defensive approach.

Scheyer said Duke had run a zone for exactly one possession all season, and until late last week, hadn't practiced it often either. But after a failed attempt to slow Wake with the zone in a game last season, Scheyer went to his «curveball» once more.

The Duke D offered nothing easy for Wake after the defensive switch, outscoring the Deacons 24-11 the rest of the way. Wake was 2-for-10 — including a stretch of eight straight misses — from the field after Duke switched to the zone.

At the podium for a postgame news conference, Scheyer