[en] The competition between pn and d evaporation leading to production of the same residual nucleus has been calculated in the framework of the Hauser-Feshbach theory for nine heavy-ion-induced nuclear reactions, each at several bombarding energies, for target-projectile combinations resulting in compound nuclei 12≤A≤40. The observed very good agreement between the experimental and the statistically predicted relative cross sections for pn and d emission indicates that both these exit channels proceed via evaporation from a compound nucleus