Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler both scored 22 pts, and Duke held off a late Curry-led charge to beat Davidson 79-67 on Wednesday night.
Gerald Henderson added 11 pts on 3-of-11 shooting for the #2 Blue Devils (13-1). They never trailed, outscored the Wildcats 20-7 to start the second half and won their 67th straight non-conf home game by withstanding a furious comeback attempt that for a while seemed destined to add to Curry's legend.
"All was good in Krzyzewskiville. And then, all of a sudden, the clouds came," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "The story's going to end bad. But you don't win every round against good teams. They're going to make you look bad, stop you, or you're going to stop them and we stopped them a little bit more than they stopped us."
Curry, the nation's leading scorer, scored 29 points — the most Duke has allowed any player this season — on 10-of-22 shooting but was just 1-for-8 from 3-point range and turned it over six times for Davidson (10-3).
He scored 21 points in the second half as he tried to rally his team from a 25-point deficit, including eight in a 90-second span that came during a 14-2 spurt midway through the half to help the Wildcats close within 13.
"After they made that big run in the second half and got up 20-plus, we didn't panic," Curry said. "We've been in that situation before — kind of too often now — and we just got back to hitting singles, as coach would say, and making the easy play."
Davidson then pulled to 69-61 on Lovedale's basket in the post with 3:53 left, but couldn't get any closer. Lance Thomas hit two critical free throws and Scheyer scored six pts in the final 2 minutes — including the 1,000th of his career — to help Duke pull away late.
"I've been doing this for 20 years against Duke," Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. "They expose you. They undress you. And unless you stay in the center ring and fight from the center of the ring, instead of backpedaling and getting caught on the ropes, you're never going to be successful against Duke."
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