By C. Jemal Horton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 28, 1999; Page D1

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 27 – Duke had not been in difficult situations very often during its record-breaking season, but in their first close game in more than two months, the top-ranked Blue Devils survived what many thought they could not.

Duke overcame a relatively poor shooting night, a furious rally by Michigan State and foul trouble to star Elton Brand to defeat the Spartans, 68-62, in a national semifinal tonight at Tropicana Field. The Blue Devils earned a chance to play for their third title of the decade.

In Monday's championship, the Blue Devils (37-1) will face Connecticut, which defeated Ohio State, 64-58, in the other semifinal. The final will feature a guard matchup between onetime high school teammates, William Avery of Duke and Ricky Moore of Connecticut.

But first Duke's women's team will attempt to give the university a chance at an extraordinary double – men's and women's basketball national championships for the same school in the same season. The women play Purdue in the final Sunday night in San Jose. It already is the first time men's and women's teams from a Division I school have advanced to the national final in the same season.

Tonight's win gave Duke, the winningest team in NCAA tournament history (65-20), its NCAA record-tying 37th victory, and extended its winning streak to 32. Meanwhile, the Duke players took pride in ending the 22-game winning streak of Michigan State (33-5).

The fact that the Blue Devils only shot 44.6 percent, seven points below their average, and had to survive a scare while Brand sat on the bench with four fouls late in the game, gave them optimism heading into the championship.

"I think it's good that we had to play a close game just before going into the big one," said Avery, who had 14 crucial points, but failed to register any assists in a game for the first time this season. "I think it shows we can win any way, and that we're ready to play."

But the Blue Devils were on edge for a while. Brand sat out for approximately 5 minutes 30 seconds while Michigan State whittled the lead to three. Brand picked up his second foul with 12:57 to go, and his third with 12:04 left. Brand was whistled for his fourth with the Blue Devils leading 50-42 with 10:12 to go after he stole a pass, dribbled downcourt and charged into Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves.

Michigan State immediately took advantage of Brand's absence by going inside to forward Andre Hutson, who easily scored over Brand's replacement, Chris Burgess.

Hutson's basket started a 6-1 surge for Michigan State that cut Duke's lead to 51-48 with 8:33 left. But then Trajan Langdon hit a shot to widen his team's margin, while the Spartans committed two turnovers and missed four of their next nine shots.

Avery later scored five consecutive points to secure Duke's victory.

"My teammates came through for me," said Brand, who had 18 points and 15 rebounds. "I made some bad mistakes, but I think it shows the character of this team. We're excited to be in the championship game, and I think a close game like this helps us going in."

Duke's game suffered in nearly every facet, from shooting 52 percent from the foul line to committing 12 turnovers. Morris Peterson led the Spartans with 15 points; Hutson had 13 and Cleaves 12. Michigan State finished shooting 37.1 percent.

"Dang, it hurts knowing we had a chance to get them like this," Michigan State's Charlie Bell said. "But I think we showed the world that we can compete with them and that we're a good team."

Michigan State's negative omen began just after Brand gave Duke a 2-0 lead. On Michigan State's first offensive possession, it ran its play to perfection, with Cleaves passing to a cutting Bell for an open layup. But Bell shot the ball over the basket, and the Spartans missed four of their first five shots.

Duke took advantage of the Spartans' dismal shooting, with Brand overpowering Hutson with a variety of post moves to score six of the Blue Devils' first nine points during a 9-2 run to open the game. Brand finished the first half with eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, and 13 rebounds.

The Spartans seemed to finally come out of their funk when Hutson converted a three-point play inside and Cleaves made a three-pointer over Langdon to pull Michigan to 9-8 with 15:38 left in the first half.

Michigan's State's first-half euphoria disappeared after that. Avery made a jump shot to push Duke's lead to three. The basket also ignited an impressive 8-0 surge by the Blue Devils, with Brand, freshman Corey Maggette and Washington native Nate James scoring two points each to make the score 17-8 with 12:50 to go in the half.

The Blue Devils went into halftime with a 32-20 lead, and seemingly a psychological advantage over the Spartans, who left the court looking at their Reeboks.

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski became perturbed when it was suggested that the Blue Devils' first close game in a while was an aberration.

"Let me tell you something, Michigan State was the number two team in the country," Krzyzewski said. "They're not a bump in the road. We beat a great team in a great game today."