Duke defense holds Gonzaga to 25yr low

Nolan Smith scored 24 points, point guard Jon Scheyer added 20 points and eight assists and No. 7 Duke held No. 15 Gonzaga to its lowest point total in 25 years in a 76-41 victory Saturday in the Aeropostale Classic.

Among those in the crowd of 14,554 on a snowy day were Jason Williams, Chris Duhon, Greg Paulus and current assistant Steve Wojciechowski, all players who ran the point successfully at Duke for coach Mike Krzyzewski.

"I didn't know who was here until after the game and that's a good thing because you play a little differently if you do," Scheyer said. "I'm not one of those guys. They were obviously great guards and it was fun for Nolan and I to have a game like that."

Fun was not a word heard much in the Gonzaga locker room with the Bulldogs being held to their lowest point total since a 62-40 loss to Iowa on Nov. 28, 1984.

"We got throttled in every aspect of basketball," coach Mark Few said. "Their physical play bothered us as far as finishing shots around the rim. They outrebounded us. We turned the ball over more and they took more free throws. They beat us in every aspect. It was an old-fashioned take you out to the woodshed and beat you down."

Duke pounds Gardner Webb on Scheyer's 36

Scheyer had career highs of 36 points and nine assists to lead No. 7 Duke past Gardner-Webb 113-68 on Tuesday night.

He was 11 of 13 from the field, had 24 points by halftime and finished with a personal-best seven 3-pointers to lead the Blue Devils (8-1). And as his stat line inched closer to a triple-double, his teammates joked that he earned a taste of the silent treatment.

"You don't talk about it," forward Mason Plumlee said with a smile. "If he's not missing, don't mess with him."

Auryn MacMillan scored 14 points and C.J. Hailey added 11 to lead Gardner-Webb (3-5). The Runnin' Bulldogs turned it over 23 times and went more than 6 minutes without putting the ball through the rim in losing their fifth straight.

Freshman Andre Dawkins scored 16 emotional points while playing for the first time since his sister was killed in a car accident 1½ weeks earlier while driving to see Duke's game against St. John's.

Miles Plumlee and Brian Zoubek had 13 points apiece, while Nolan Smith added 11 and Kyle Singler, playing through a sprained right ankle, also finished with 11 — all in the second half.

Duke defeats St Johns

Singler scored 10 of his 17 points in the second half, and the sixth-ranked Blue Devils bounced back from their first loss by beating St. John's 80-71 on Saturday.

Nolan Smith added 16 points, Jon Scheyer added 15 on 4-of-14 shooting and Duke (7-1) had enough big bodies to clean up those misses, outrebounding the Red Storm 41-31. That helped the Blue Devils score 17 straight points in the first half, then produce another big run in the second and claim their NCAA-record 73rd straight nonconference victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"We're going to miss shots, but we don't really want to focus too much on that, just because we know we've got guys that can rebound the ball," Singler said. "One of the reasons why we had such a big lead in the first half was, our bigs did such a great job rebounding our misses and getting them back in the basket."

Wisconsin takes down Duke, 73-69

Hughes had 19 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and Wisconsin's 73-69 win over No. 6 Duke on Wednesday night snapped the Blue Devils' perfect mark in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

"The Big Ten's never won, and I think we won it?" teammate Keaton Nankivil asked postgame.

There was Hughes, right on cue: "Yeah, and the first time Duke lost."

With Illinois' 76-74 rally over Clemson and Ohio State's 77-64 victory over Florida State in the final game, the Big Ten won the 11-year series for the first time, 6-5.

"I'm proud to be a part of the conference when they win something," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "We're in it to try to win it."

It was especially sweet for the Badgers (5-1), who never trailed and got a measure of payback against Duke (6-1) after being routed 82-58 two years ago in a challenge game in Durham, N.C. Wisconsin's win ended the Blue Devils' 10-0 streak in the annual event and helped end the ACC's perfect 10-0 record as well.

"It's a point of pride to know that we had something to do with that in a game a lot of people probably didn't think we were going to win," Nankivil said. "It was pretty special."