London Towers 94
Duke University 84

For one rainy Sunday evening, Crystal Palace was turned into Cameron Indoor Stadium exported 2000 miles across the Atlantic as a sea of Duke sweatshirts, caps and worn away t-shirts merged together to create a welcoming home from home for the 2001 NCAA champs.

All we needed were war songs and a graffitied effigy of Dean Smith to complete the transformation as a packed 2,000 crowd at the National Sports Centre turned out to witness the rarest of overseas excursions for one of America’s most storied sides, helmed as ever by the inimitable Mike Krzyzewski.

Coach K and his merry band of men  - including six freshmen from what some believe to be the finest incoming group ever assembled in college basketball – received a warm welcome from every quarter, except from the Towers themselves who rallied magnificently in the fourth quarter to claim a 94-84 victory in the first of two challenge matches between the sides.

"I'm taking my wife out to dinner tomorrow night," said Towers coach Dave Lindstrom. "I want to tell my grandkids I went 1-0 against Coach K."

Against a team ranked in the NCAA’s top five this pre-season, Towers used triallists Theo Dixon and Edwin Suber and it was the former who made the greatest impression, scoring five in a 7-0 first quarter run which contributed towards the hosts early 19-10 lead.

Duke rallied with an 8-0 burst and they contained Terrell Myers manfully for long spells, posting a 43-39 half-time lead.

With Robert Youngblood, such a colossus on the boards, hampered by fouls, Duke pulled well ahead, JJ Redick blasting three treys in four minutes as the visitors threatened to blow Towers hopes away.

Shavlik Randolph and Dahntay Jones could not miss but the capital outfit somehow re-grouped to re-ignite their earlier spark.

Kendrick Warren, benched through foul trouble for most of the game, came off the bench to fire 12 of his 30 total points in the closing period as London erased what had been an eleven point deficit late in the third.

British referee Richard Stokes had the temerity to hand Krzyzewski a technical four minutes from the end, causing an uproar among the Dookie faithful as Terrell Myers converted the pair for a 80-73 lead for the hosts.

It proved a gulf too far as the BBL outfit held on, the vocal minority of home supporters finally holding the upper vocal chord as David Lindstrom’s men completed a famous win.

"We're not here to be the Beatles or the Stones," joked the Duke coach. "We're looking at this as a chance to learn rather than just being about results."

Earlier in the afternoon, the Blue Devils had laboured early against Belgian side Racing Antwerp before a 32-9 blitz in the second period sent the collegians up for a 96-72 victory. Dahntay Jones led Duke with 21 - a tally he matched against Towers.

Duke now face Brighton on Monday (1.30pm) before a second try at Towers (7.00pm).
 

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