Duke Shuts Down Virginia 87-65 in ACC Opener

This is how Coach K's team is supposed to begin its brutal conference schedule.

Behind 20 points from DeMarcus Nelson, # 9 Duke cruised to an 87-65 victory against Virginia, perhaps the Blue Devils' most complete victory of the season.

Henderson added 18 points and Kyle Singler scored 13 for the Blue Devils (13-1, 1-0 ACC). They shot better than 50%, never trailed, led by double figures for the entire second half, hit 11 3-pointers and shut down Virginia's perimeter game.

"We knew that they were a 3-point shooting team, especially in transition," Nelson said. "We felt they were going to take a lot of 3s, so our job was just to rebound those long misses when they did occur, and then push it, because we knew that their defensive balance was going to be bad (by) taking perimeter shots."

Duke limited the Cavs, a 40% shooting team from long range, to just 4-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc and held a 35-34 advantage on the glass against a Virginia team that entered out-rebounding its opponents by 12.4 per game.

Sean Singletary scored 18 points and Calvin Baker added 13 for Virginia (10-4, 0-1), its four-game winning streak against ranked teams also was snapped.

"They came out and imposed their will on us, and we didn't have enough to play at a consistently high level throughout the game," Singletary said. "They just kept giving us punches and punches, and sometimes we responded, and sometimes we didn't."

The Blue Devils turned to their strong perimeter game to build an early lead; the ACC's second-best 3-point-shooting team hit 8-of-18 from long range in the first half. Then, when the Cavaliers clamped down on the outside game, Duke simply broke down Virginia's defense off the dribble, repeatedly slicing its way to second-half layups and dunks.

"We really wanted to drive the ball hard like we were going to score," said guard Jon Scheyer, who added 12 points. "If it wasn't there, our kicks (to the guards) were always there. ... Some guys hit them, and in the second half, they took them away (and) we were able to get some drives to the basket."

Nelson was 3-of-4 from 3-point range and scored at least 20 points for the third time in five games for Duke, which has won 10 of 11 in the series.