Devils roll over UNC-Asheville

DURHAM — With 11 days to stew over Duke's first loss of the season, Mike Krzyzewski wanted to see something different out of his Blue Devils against UNC-Asheville on Wednesday night.

Coach K cooked up an unconventional starting lineup for another conventional win for the Blue Devils, who beat UNCA 99-56 for their 65th consecutive nonconference home win.

Coming off an 81-73 loss at Michigan, the sixth-ranked Blue Devils tried new blood to jump-start the team against the Bulldogs, who suffered a 68-point loss to UNC earlier this season.

Greg Paulus, Marty Pocius, David McClure, Elliot Williams and Miles Plumlee started the game. Only Plumlee, the freshman forward who had played a total of four minutes in the previous two games, had started a game this season.

Duke's old friend, the 3-point shoot, is what pushed them out of the gates to their ninth win of the season. The Blue Devils hit 7 of their first 8 3-pointers to keep the Bulldogs, who are missing 7-7 giant Kenny George, who is out for the season, at arms length.

Paulus, who missed all four of his 3s in the Michigan loss, hit back-to-back 3s to set the early tone. The Devils went 7 of 33 from 3 against Michigan.

It wasn't until the 14:01 mark that Krzyzewski brought in the complete regular starting lineup.
Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, two of the starters, got the message and threw in two straight 3s to make 21-13 at 12:31.

Singler and Gerald Henderson (14 points each) led six Duke players in double-figures.
Duke's defense — steals leading to transition dunks — added to what can be its one-dimensional offense.

Smith's steal and pass to Singler in transition for a dunk made 35-19 at 8:39.
The Bulldogs (4-6) didn't go away quite yet. Sean Smith's 3-pointer at 4:49 made it 39-28.
Duke leaned back on its defense to take a 17-point halftime lead.

Henderson's steal and assist to Singler for another breakaway dunk made 50-35. Lance Thomas added a putback of his own miss for the 52-35 advantage at the break.

The cold-shooting from Michigan resumed in the second half, with Duke missing nine straight 3s at one point and finishing the game 11 of 27, but the Devils were able to get to the free-throw line to offset the outside shooting.

After attempting only three free throws in the first half, Duke went to the line 16 times in the second half, converting 13.

Staff photo by Chuck Liddy