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| JOHNSON (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer) |
In voting for Rookie of the Week, Duke guard Austin Rivers
earned acclaim for the third consecutive week and for the sixth time in 13
opportunities.
Johnson, a 6-foot-10 junior from Winston-Salem, N.C., who
missed this season's first nine games while recovering from a knee injury,
scored a career-high 27 points and collected 12 rebounds as the Hurricanes
defeated No. 7 Duke 78-74 on Sunday. The victory was the first for the Miami
program at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where it had been 0-7.
The Hurricanes lost a 16-point second-half lead but regrouped
behind the play of their center, whose field goal with 3:19 left opened the
scoring in overtime and put Miami ahead to stay. Johnson later grabbed an
offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws to make it a 73-69
game. Earlier in the week, the Hurricanes earned a 90-86, double-OT win over
Maryland as Johnson contributed 13 points and five rebounds.
Miami becomes the first ACC team to win back-to-back games
in league play and in overtime since Georgia Tech defeated Duke 73-71 on Feb.
7, 1996 and earned a 92-83 victory over North Carolina three days later.
Rivers, a 6-4 freshman from Winter Park, Fla., delivered 20
points and a career-high nine rebounds while committing only two turnovers in
43 minutes against the Hurricanes. That performance followed a 4-for-6 shooting
effort from the 3-point line in the Blue Devils' win at Virginia Tech on Feb.
2. For the week, Rivers averaged 19 points a game and was charged with four
turnovers in 78 minutes of play.
In the previous 41 years of Rookie of the Week honors, only
two players, 10-time winners Kenny Anderson of Georgia Tech in 1990 and Tyler
Hansbrough of North Carolina in 2006, have been cited more than six times.
Rivers ties the Duke record for rookie honors held by Luol Deng, a six-time
honoree in 2003-04.
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