NEW YORK -- Mike Krzyzewski was on one knee facing his seated team as he always is during a timeout. This time, however, was different.
No. 7 Duke trailed Oklahoma by 10 points at halftime. The first play of the second half was an unforced turnover by the Blue Devils. Then came an Oklahoma basket on an offensive rebound.
Time out, Duke, just 33 seconds into the second half.
"It wasn't about yelling or screaming. It was the time to say `Look, either we're men right now or we get run out of the gym. It's time to be men,"' Krzyzewski said. "No strategy or anything like that. I thought our kids were men for the last 19 minutes. You can say whatever you want, but they have to do it and they did it."
Led by the big three of J.J. Redick, Daniel Ewing and Shelden Williams, the Blue Devils rallied for a 78-67 victory over the Sooners at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. It is their fourth 8-0 start in the last five season.
Whatever the Hall of Fame coach said it worked.
"We didn't want to start the second half that way, not after the first half we played," Ewing said. "He told us to wake up and get our heads out of our butts."
Redick had 19 of his 26 points in the second half, turning a 1-for-7 effort from the field in the opening 20 minutes into 7-for-16 shooting for the game.
Ewing had 17 points, 12 in the second half.
Williams took over inside in the opening minutes of the second half, scoring seven points in a 10-2 run that brought the Blue Devils within 43-39 with 16:23 to play. Williams, a native of Forest Park, Okla., finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Ewing and Redick missed only one of their first seven shots in the second half, and Duke made nine of its first 12. The suddenly effective offense led to much better defense as well, and Oklahoma (6-2) shot just 30 percent in the second half (9-for-30).
"I'm good when we're good and we weren't very good in the first half," Redick said. "We went to our motion offense in the second half and that made the difference."
Taj Gray had 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Sooners, whose only other loss was to No. 18 Washington in the semifinals of the Great Alaska Shootout. Kevin Bookout added 17 points, but was 2-for-10 from the field in the second half.
"It looked like we ran out of gas a little bit," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. "Our kids can play with that team but we have to learn how to win it when you've got them. We have to find a way to make the play that will keep it right there."
Duke had poor starts in its last two games -- Toledo and Illinois-Chicago -- but the Blue Devils took control in the first half of those home games.
Duke took its first lead against the Sooners since 8-7 when Redick hit a 3 with 11:12 to play that made it 53-52. That was part of an 11-2 run, during which he had the first nine points -- a three-point play on a nice spin move and two 3s. Ewing capped it with a basket that made it 58-52 with 9:35 left.
"We started hitting our shots and we got J.J. coming off some screens," Ewing said. "We opened it up some more, and Shelden started playing offense the way he does in the second half."
Redick's fourth and final 3 gave Duke a 70-61 lead with 2:56 to play.
"They turned up the pressure in the second half on the perimeter and inside," Oklahoma point guard Drew Lavender said.
Williams agreed with Ewing about his offense.
"It was time to do it," he said. "I knew I had to get it going. My teammates got me the ball, and I contributed."
Williams said the chance to play against Oklahoma didn't matter a lot.
"If I did look at it like it was a big thing, then my emotions could have taken over and that wouldn't have been good," he said. "That's something for after the game."
Redick was 8-for-9 from the free-throw line, though the rest of the Blue Devils were just 12-for-21.
Duke's Shavlik Randolph, who came in averaging 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, had no points and a rebound, fouling out in 14 minutes.
Duke is 4-0 against Oklahoma with all the games played since 1986.
