Maui Madness 2007 James v. Paulus

(photos from Espn.comAP Photo/Michael Conroy)
This year's Maui Invitational was full of spectacular play as well as play not so spectacular. The two finalist, Duke and Marquette, were by far and obviously the best teams in the invitational. The EA Sports Maui Invitational Championship game was a whirlwind to say the least. Two of College basketball's most improved point guards squared off. Dominic James's game has improved. However, during the game, he made some questionable shots and missed easy looks. In Dominic James's credit, he made plays that were so spectacular that awed the Duke Defense. He slashed through the Duke defense breaking it down for easy lay ins and offensive put backs. In the end he posted 12 points. Unfortuanetly for Marquette, the ability of the Duke Blue Devils to take charges and to draw fouls aloud them to get Marquette into foul trouble. Inspite of this, the Marquette defense still went strong with intensity. Cubillan's forcefulness on the ball and much needed 3's kept Marquette in the game. Acker, also a spark of the bench, made much needed plays. Marquette's Matthews and McNeal also contributed as well with McNeal putting up 11 and Matthews chiped in 12. Hayward, the sophomore power foward, came up big with 14 points.The Dukeys also had their share of highlights. Duke constant ability to execute and score on almost every possession it seems was one of the deciding factors for the game. Although Marquette's defense held Duke's Henderson to only 7 points, Duke charged on. The projected MVP of the tournament Kyle Singler gave his team a much needed 25 points. A series offhand screen-dribble-hand off freed Paulus only for a split second but was just enough time for him to put up daggering 3's that helped keep the game in further grasp from Marquette. One of the deciding facors was the rebounding. Duke out rebounded Marquette 34-24. In the end, Marquette's Big three and bench could not overcome Duke and fell 77-73.