By Paul Daugherty
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ATLANTA - Luol Deng was the one player Xavier feared it might not have an answer for. Duke's 6-foot-8 freshman was strong enough to score inside, skilled enough to score outside and polished enough not to get rattled in a regional final game.

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Photos from Sunday's game

By the time the Blue Devils had beaten XU 66-63, the Musketeers wished they hadn't been so correct. Deng finished with a game-high 19 points (15 in the second half) and provided an emphatic halftime speech that reminded his teammates what was at stake.

"Luol got very emotional," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He was crying. He stood up and expressed his feelings to the team that we needed to play outside of ourselves."

Do a little more than what was asked, in other words. Deng backed it up. He looked like Spiderman out there. With 5:08 to play, he hit a 3-pointer that tied the game at 56. Three minutes later, Deng wriggled into the lane for a follow-up tip-in that put Duke up 61-56 with 1:53 left. Xavier got no closer than three after that.

"I thought that knocked them back a little bit," Krzyzewski said. "It gave us a cushion. We needed something extraordinary. Luol gave us that."

The Muskies figured they matched up well in the backcourt, with Lionel Chalmers and Romain Sato. They liked their chances in the middle, with Anthony Myles banging against Shelden Williams. The versatility of the Sudan-born Deng concerned them.

Ultimately, Duke just had too many options for the Muskies. Sharpshooter J.J. Redick had eight points in the second half, including a killer 3-pointer with 2:53 to go. Chris Duhon, Duke's unsung star, played airtight defense, holding Sato to two points in the first half, then switching to Chalmers after intermission and holding him to just four points. Duke also got 13 rebounds from Williams.

It was Deng, named the Atlanta Regional's MVP, that did in the Musketeers, though.

"Big players step up in big situations," guard Daniel Ewing said of Deng. "Tonight was one of those times."

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com