chose to look at the challenge as a lesson for New Zealand, pa

NEW YORK -- Almost everybody in Madison Square Garden was impressed with the game Amile Jefferson had for No. 5 Duke.Nobody appreciated it more than Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski.Jefferson set career highs with 24 points and 15 rebounds to lead Duke to an 84-74 victory over No. 21 Florida on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic.Amile played one of the great games, Krzyzewski said. God bless him. He was fantastic.Luke Kennard scored 29 points and freshman Jayson Tatum added 22 for the Blue Devils (9-1), whose only loss was to Kansas on this same court in the Champions Classic in November.Krzyzewski also praised Kennard, who established his career high for points in the previous game against Maine.Lukes played fantastic, Krzyzewski said. When you get 29 points on 16 shots -- what hed have, 35 against Maine? Really efficient. Hes come through for us beautifully. Hes starting to put it together a little bit.Twice in the final 8 minutes the Gators (7-2) got within seven points but both times Kennard scored to hold off Florida, once with a 3-pointer and again with a long layup off a steal.Down the stretch in that second half, every time they made a play, we did a great job of coming back and taking the air out of the ball, using 20 seconds and then getting up a good shot, Jefferson said. Whether it was Luke, whether it was Jayson, whether it was G (Grayson Allen) penetrating and finding somebody, our guys did an amazing job of never splintering.The 6-foot-9 Jefferson, who also blocked four shots, was 11 for 14 from the field. Kennard went 11 of 16, including 5 for 7 from 3-point range.Kevaughn Allen led Florida with 21 points, and John Egbunu had nine points and 12 rebounds.They were a better team tonight, Florida coach Mike White said. I thought our guys were really jacked up for the opportunity. I thought Amile Jefferson was amazing, just absolutely amazing.Duke closed the first half with an 8-2 run -- Jefferson and Tatum had four points each -- for a 41-31 lead.Allen, Dukes preseason All-America, had an off night shooting (2 for 10, including 1 for 5 on 3s) but he had eight assists to go with his six points.I thought Jayson came out tonight and did an amazing job of just letting it all out, Jefferson said. Luke is the smoothest player in the country. So playing with these guys has been so much fun so far.BIG PICTUREFlorida: In the first eight games of the season, six different players led the Gators in scoring. ... White was 3 years old when Krzyzewski started coaching at Duke. ... Because of renovations at the OConnell Center on the Florida campus, the Gators wont play their first home game until Dec. 21 against Arkansas-Little Rock. All their games are either on the road or at neutral sites until then.Duke: Krzyzewski is 29-10 at Madison Square Garden as Duke coach. ... The Blue Devils lead the all-time series with Florida 13-4. ... Jefferson was coming off a career-high 20 points against Maine. He had 14 rebounds four times. ... Duke had five double-figure scorers in seven of its nine games coming in. The Blue Devils had three against Florida, all over 20 points.I think were really close if were not there, Kennard said. I think we really, really shared the ball well tonight on the offensive end because we have a lot of scorers. We have a lot of playmakers and a lot of scorers and the way we can share the ball, its pretty special. Not a lot of teams have that many scorers on a team and when we share the ball and get open shots, we can be really dangerous on the offensive end.JIMMY VThroughout both games, videos were shown during timeouts featuring cancer survivors or those whose life has been affected by the disease. The Garden also showed Jim Valvanos speech at the ESPYs when he announced the formation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The crowd of 15,294 broke into a prolonged round of applause when it ended with Valvanos now famous Dont give up. Dont ever give up.I miss him, Krzyzewski said of Valvano. Im glad he had the vision to get this thing started.GOOD DBoth teams played solid man-to-man defense and it was such a halfcourt game that there were only 18 fast-break points, 10 for Florida.FAMILY TIESKevin White, the athletic director at Duke, is the father of Florida coach Mike White.UP NEXTFlorida: The Gators head for a real rivalry game, Sunday at Florida State.Duke: On Saturday the Blue Devils travel to Las Vegas to meet UNLV. Air Max 97 Canada Sale . Burke is expected to miss two to three months after breaking a finger in the teams third preseason game. Tinsley, a 10-year veteran, spent the last two seasons in Utah, where the point guard averaged 3. Air Max 97 Clearance . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. http://www.airmax97canada.com/ . The 28-year-old from Calgary matched his career best after missing just one shot in his two rounds of shooting in the mens 10-kilometre sprint competition. Smith finished in 23 minutes 15. Cheap Air Max 97 .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. Air Max 97 Canada . Hazard cut in from the left and scored with a swerving right-footed shot for ninth goal of the season, which proved to be enough for the victory despite Chelseas forwards again lacking a cutting edge up front. After all the New Zealand talk that a one-off Test would be exciting, theyve actually decided they would have preferred a few more matches after they lost at SuperSport Park.Its a shame, really, to just play the one Test and for that to be the decider, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said.Centurion became a shoot-out because of the Durban abandonment and, in a bid to strike the first blow, Williamson chose to bowl first. He saw grass on the Centurion pitch - more grass than we sometimes see at the height of the summer - and he had heard that it would be soft and spongy and would get easier for batting as the sun baked the surface. It turned out that Faf du Plessis would have done exactly the same thing, even though hindsight showed it would have been a mistake.It was a good toss to lose and unfortunately I won it, Williamson said, as he admitted he second-guessed himself by the end of the first session on the first day. Naturally when they are 130 without loss, it crosses your mind. But there was enough in the wicket to have restricted them to a below-par total. History shows wickets fall in clumps and we werent able to do that.New Zealands short-ball strategy was one of the reasons South Africa scored a quickly and Williamson conceded that was a strategic error. Youre right. That first session, we were a little short, he said.That, combined with a poor track record on DRS and umpiring errors, left New Zealand having to work much harder than they did in Durban, where they dismissed South Africa for 263. But that was oonly the half of it.dddddddddddd When South Africa unleashed their rejuvenated pace pack on New Zealand, it was clear there was a difference in quality between the two sides. New Zealands openers could not cope with the moving ball, their big guns did not fire and their long tail could not delay the inevitable.Williamson chose to look at the challenge as a lesson for New Zealand, particularly for their younger batsmen. Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander are two world-class bowlers and they have shown it. Then you throw Kagiso Rabada into the mix and on surfaces that are offering, they will find anything, Williamson said. Its a challenge the batters were excited to come up against. In terms of experience, there is no better to move your game forward.Henry Nicholls benefited the most from that experience with 76 in the second innings. Only Williamson himself, who scored 77 in the first, managed more runs but he is also still learning in terms of his new leadership role. It is very enjoyable, he said. Theyre a great bunch of guys and its nice to be a part of this unit and lead the side. Its better when you are winning.He would know. He now has a series loss and a series win to his name and was as gracious in defeat in South Africa as he was in victory in Zimbabwe, although, ultimately, he wanted a few more matches. The better team won but it would have been great to play another game or another two. ' ' '