Duke hangs on to defeat St. John's

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/28/2012 - Durham, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mason Plumlee finished with 15 points and 17 rebounds, and No. 8 Duke held on for an 83-76 victory over St. John's on Saturday.

Ryan Kelly scored 16 points and grabbed nine boards for the Blue Devils (18-3), who controlled most of the game. They led by more than 20 and were still up by double digits with three minutes to play.

St. John's whittled the margin down to four late in the final minute, but a pair of free throws by Kelly helped Duke secure its second consecutive victory.

Moe Harkless poured in 30 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Red Storm (9-12), who were coming off Wednesday's win against West Virginia. D'Angelo Harrison added 21 points in the loss.

St. John's faced a big deficit in the second half -- Seth Curry hit a three- pointer about 2 1/2 minutes in to give Duke a 52-30 advantage, and two foul shots by Kelly made it a 60-40 contest with under 14 minutes to go.

But the Red Storm scored 16 of the next 19 points to get back in the game. Harrison drained a pair of three-pointers during the run, which Phil Greene ended with a layup and long-distance make.

The rally had St. John's within 63-56 with 9:12 to go, but Austin Rivers stopped the visitors' momentum by sinking a layup on back-to-back possessions.

The shots helped Duke stabilize, and Plumlee made two free throws with 3:08 left on the clock to give the Blue Devils a 76-63 advantage.

But St. John's followed with another run. Harkless made buckets on three consecutive possessions and knocked down a trey inside the final minute. After Kelly made 1-of-2 from the line, Harrison rolled off a screen to hit a deep three and pull the Red Storm within 79-75.

However, there were only 20 seconds left to play. Kelly made two free throws at the other end, and St. John's didn't make another shot from the field.

Duke took control of the contest with a 20-3 run during the first half. Andre Dawkins made three shots from behind the arc to fuel the burst, which helped the Blue Devils go into halftime with a 45-29 advantage.

Game Notes

The Blue Devils shot only 41.5 percent, but made 32-of-42 free throws...St. John's made 44.1 percent of its shots...Duke holds a 15-6 series advantage with St. John's and is 6-1 all-time against the Red Storm at Cameron Indoor Stadium...Dawkins ended with 14 points, while Rivers had 12.

Waferweb NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Kagawa fires Dortmund past Hoffenheim
Dortmund, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shinji Kagawa netted a pair of goals to lead Borussia Dortmund to a 3-1 win over Hoffenheim on Saturday at Signal- Iduna-Park, extending Dortmund's unbeaten run to 13 games. Goals from Kagawa and Ke

<< Notre Dame picks up 18th straight victory
Queens, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Skylar Diggins had 24 points, six assists and three blocks, as the second-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish picked up their 18th straight victory with a 71-56 decision over the St. John's Red Storm. Devereau

<< Davis moves Rangers closer to the top
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A goal in each half from Steven Davis propelled Rangers to a 4-0 win over Hibernian at the Ibrox Stadium on Saturday, moving the club to within a point of leaders Celtic. Davis scored the lo

<< Kaman could be a keeper elsewhere
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You can forget about blowing the whistle on ageism in sports. After all, it's not only accepted it's expected. If you were wondering why the New Orleans Hornets are actively trying to trade center Chris

<< Columbus to host 2013 NHL All-Star game
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbus and the Blue Jackets will host the NHL's All-Star festivities in 2013, the league announced Saturday. The showcase, which includes the skills competition and All-Star game, will take place on th

Marquette overcomes slow start, edges Villanova >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darius Johnson-Odom scored a game-high 26 points and added six rebounds as No. 17 Marquette came back from 18 down to defeat Villanova, 82-78, at Wells Fargo Center. Jae Crowder had 20 points and 12 bo

Syracuse holds off West Virginia in controversial finish >>
Syracuse, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-ranked Syracuse Orange snuck past the West Virginia Mountaineers, 63-61, in a controversial finish at the Carrier Dome. With West Virginia down by two, Darryl Bryant missed a three-pointe

Baylor holds off Texas >>
Waco, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Perry Jones III scored 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds as No. 6 Baylor held off a late push by Texas to take a 76-71 victory at Ferrell Center. Quincy Miller added 18 points and Brady Heslip had 11 fo

Florida defeats Mississippi State >>
Gainesville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bradley Beal scored 19 points, Erik Murphy netted 14 and 14th-ranked Florida ran away with the game in the second half to take a 69-57 decision over No. 18 Mississippi State on Saturday. Patric Young add

No. 2 Missouri tops Texas Tech >>
Columbia, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kim English led all scorers with 22 points as No. 2 Missouri remained undefeated at home with a 63-50 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday. Marcus Denmon added 19 points and six boards and Michael Dixon ch

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.