Gerald Henderson scored a career-high 35 points and No. 9 Duke held on at home to beat No. 8 Wake Forest 101-91 last night.
Jon Scheyer added a career high with 30 points for the Blue Devils (22-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). They twice led by 22 points in the first half but let the Demon Deacons creep within two points before finally putting them away with a 16-6 run that Henderson keyed.
Jeff Teague scored 28 points and James Johnson added 26 for the Demon Deacons (20-5, 7-5). They shot 61 percent but allowed Duke to hit 54 percent of its attempts - the worst performance of the season by the ACC's stingiest defense.
Yet Wake Forest managed to twice close within two points in the final moments, the last coming when freshman Al-Farouq Aminu's alley-oop dunk from Johnson made it 80-78 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining.
Scheyer knocked down three free throws roughly 30 seconds later to start the decisive run in which Duke hit six of seven attempts from the foul line. Henderson and Scheyer then capped the run by hitting three-pointers about a minute apart, with Scheyer pushing it to 96-84 with 2:12 left.
Wake Forest didn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Ishmael Smith scored 12 points and L.D. Williams added 10 for Wake Forest, which has lost four straight road games. Its last victory away from Joel Coliseum came at Clemson and propelled it to the second No. 1 ranking in school history.
No. 13 Clemson 81, Georgia Tech 73: : Trevor Booker had 21 points and 12 rebounds to help the visiting Tigers overcome a 15-point deficit.
The Tigers (22-4, 8-4 ACC) have won six of eight and improved to 9-0 this season when Booker has a double double.
Lewis Clinch had a career-high 27 points for the Yellow Jackets (10-16, 1-12), who have lost 11 of 12 to remain in the ACC cellar.
No. 6 Michigan State 61, Wisconsin 50: : Kalin Lucas scored 17 points to help the host Spartans (21-5, 11-3) keep a one-game lead in the Big Ten with a come-from-behind victory that ended a five-game winning streak for the Badgers (17-10, 8-7).
No. 12 Villanova 89, No. 24 Syracuse 86: : Dwayne Anderson scored a career-high 22 points to lead the visiting Wildcats (22-5, 10-4 Big East) to a season-series sweep and their eighth win in nine games.
Eric Devendorf scored 22 points for Syracuse (19-8, 7-7), which has lost six of its past eight.
