Duke

Last season was one of blowouts for Duke. This time around the No. 3 Blue Devils are living on the edge. Visiting Duke won its fourth overtime game this season, beating archrival North Carolina, 90-86, last night in one of the classic games in arguably college basketball's best rivalry. "Our guys have done well in overtime, but I don't want them to take me there anymore," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. Duke (17-2, 8-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) blew a 19-point second-half lead, but got 25 points from Shane Battier, 23 from Chris Carrawell and seven from Carlos Boozer in the overtime to beat the Tar Heels (13-9, 4-4)

Krista Gingrich and No. 14 Duke found a way to beat No. 7 North Carolina State - defense. Gingrich scored 19 points as the Blue Devils beat the visiting Wolfpack, 70-64, last night. The Blue Devils held the Wolfpack to its second-worst shooting of the season, 22-for-56 (39.3 percent), and converted 19 turnovers into 22 points to avenge an 80-75 overtime loss in Raleigh, N.C., earlier this season. "This was a game we really needed to feel good about ourselves," Duke coach Gail Gostenkors said.

Monty Williams kept second-ranked Duke on the edge of its seat for 39 minutes, but Marty Clark made sure the Blue Devils were up and cheering at the end. Clark tipped in Grant Hill's miss with three seconds left last night, lifting Duke over visiting Notre Dame, 74-72. Williams scored 34 points for the Fighting Irish (5-12). But the Irish, who led by 12 points late in the first half, made a turnover with 14 seconds left in the game to set up Clark's tiebreaking tap. Hill drove toward the basket and pulled up for a 10-footer that rolled off the rim. "Grant just went down the right side.

Duke's dominating defense is back. J.J. Redick scored 20 points and the third-ranked Blue Devils ended a two-game losing streak by beating visiting Maryland, 86-63, yesterday. Shelden Williams had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils (22-3, 11-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who avoided their first three-game losing streak in eight seasons. Duke has won 40 straight games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke had won 18 straight games and reached No. 1 for the seventh consecutive season before last week's 78-74 loss at North Carolina State.

He didn't publicly request one in the interview room, but Jim Boyle might have killed for an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball rule book last night. Just to confirm that the game is played the same south of the Mason-Dixon Line. "I wasn't aware they'd changed the rules," Boyle said, after 17th-ranked Duke shook St. Joe's in the final four minutes to claim a 93-83 victory at Cameron Indoor Zoo last night. "You hear so much about how tough it is to play here. It's really not. It just depends on the set of rules you play by. "Like, in Philly, on a breakaway and intentional foul, you get the ball back.

One of North Carolina's poorest free throw shooters hurt Duke on one of its worst nights from the foul line. Brendan Haywood, a 48 percent free throw shooter, made two foul shots with 1.2 seconds left last night to give the fourth-ranked Tar Heels an 85-83 victory at second-ranked Duke in the latest chapter of one of college basketball's greatest rivalries. When Haywood was a freshman, he missed two free throws late and the Blue Devils beat the Tar Heels by two points. He was also thinking of Duke's recent remarkable comeback win over Maryland.

Seventh-ranked Wake Forest is making things interesting in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Chris Paul scored 23 points as the No. 7 Demon Deacons beat visiting Duke last night, 92-89. The victory pulled the Deacons (18-3, 6-2 ACC) into a second-place tie with the No. 4 Blue Devils (16-2, 6-2), with each team trailing first-place North Carolina (17-2, 6-1) by a half-game. The Tar Heels face North Carolina State tonight. The Deacons have beaten Duke three straight times at home.

Duke treated its first-round against Florida A&M like a practice. The prohibitive favorite to win the national title worked on a seldom-used zone defense and a big lineup, giving opponents down the road something to think about. The Rattlers, on the other hand, worked on getting their pride back last night following a 99-58 loss to the top-seeded and top-ranked Blue Devils in the East Regional at Charlotte, N.C. "At some point, I'll be all right with this," said Florida A&M coach Mickey Clayton.

A Duke University committee recommended last night that the school's lacrosse team resume play next season, but it said the team needed strict monitoring because of a history of problems tied to alcohol. "Although the pattern of misconduct in recent years by the lacrosse team is alarming, the evidence reviewed . . . does not warrant suspension of the sport," a committee of seven faculty members wrote in a report. Duke suspended the highly ranked lacrosse team from play last month following allegations that a black woman was raped and beaten by three white men at a team party where she had been hired to dance.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Mike Krzyzewski knew this year's Duke team had its flaws. Several of them hurt the Blue Devils in a big way on Friday night. Austin Rivers and Mason Plumlee had 19 points apiece, but Duke struggled from three-point range and lost 75-70 to Lehigh to become the second No. 2 seed to lose to a 15 during a wild day in the NCAA tournament. Norfolk State, another 15th seed, upset Missouri earlier in a West region game in Omaha, Neb. The Blue Devils, who relied on the three-point shot this season, went 6 for 26 from behind the arc and another speedy guard sliced through their defense.