It was a fast-paced, high-intensity game from start to finish for the No. 1 men's basketball team and the North Carolina-Greensboro Spartan players couldn't keep up.
Freshman Shane Battier took the ball off the opening tipoff at Cameron Indoor Stadium and passed to fellow classmate Elton Brand for the first two points of the game. Brand converted Duke's first three shots while Trajan Langdon and Steve Wojciechowski drained their first three-point attempts. The Blue Devils (7-0) led 12-8 at that point and never looked back, routing the Spartans (0-4), 93-37.
Duke's ability to create turnovers with a high-intensity defensive presence turned out to be the key to Wednesday night's game.
"One of the things Ray Mears, one of the winningest coaches all time, taught me when I worked for him was not to use the word great out of context," said UNC-G coach Randy Peele. "I've never seen such defensive pressure on the ball and one pass away. Every pass was being challenged."
The Blue Devils managed to create 26 turnovers in the game and turned them into 26 points in the scoring column. Six players forced turnovers as Wojciechowski led the team with three steals.
"Watching Steve [Wojciechowski] on TV, you don't realize how hard he works." Brand said. "Whoever he plays against, he's scrapping for the ball the whole time."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski rotated nine players in and out of the game in the first half keeping everyone's legs fresh without causing a letdown in the intensity level.
"Defensively we were terrific," Krzyzewski said. "Whoever went in played hard.
When the Blue Devils weren't running, they continued to force the ball inside giving the freshmen trio of Chris Burgess, Brand, and Battier many close range opportunities. Brand led all scorers with 23 points, 11 of them coming off of free throws.
"Brand is so poised and strong inside," said Langdon, who finished the half with nine points. "He has an unbelievable presence."
Duke held UNC-G scoreless for the last 7:21 of the first half, as it went on a 10-0 run led by Burgess' four points. The half ended with the Blue Devils ahead of the Spartans by a 46-19 margin.
Although Duke had a significant lead going into the second half, it refused to let up. The Spartans could only muster four points in the last 8:07 of the game, two of which came at the foul line. The game ended with the Blue Devils ahead by 56 points.
"We have to play every game as hard as we did against Arizona," Krzyzewski said. "The kids really want to play hard. They don't need me yelling at them to play harder. Its always better when it comes from the inside."
The second half was highlighted by several Blue Devil dunks and Harlem Globetrotteresque passing. It seemed that every time a Duke player stole the ball his teammates would pass it around until he got down the floor allowing him to put the ball in the basket himself.
"We were playing very hard and creating a lot of turnovers," Wojciechowski said. "We were setting each other up for fast break opportunities."
Wojciechowski took the ball to the basket himself several times, but continued to dish the ball to his teammates, finishing the game with eight points and eight assists.
The Blue Devils didn't do all of their scoring from the inside, though. Three-point specialist Langdon seemed to have his shot back as he went four-of-eight behind the arc and finished the game with 14 points.
When the fans weren't screaming for the rolling Blue Devils, they kept busy taunting Spartan Justin Stewart. Stewart made the mistake of gesturing to the Cameron Crazies after he hit a three pointer. He fouled out with 4:46 and refused to sit for several minutes, antagonizing the fans even more.
Junior Taymon Domzalski came into the game with 7:48 and diverted the Crazies attention away from Stewart. He gave them something to cheer about as he racked up a powerful baseline dunk, five points and two blocked shots.
Krzyzewski cleared the bench for the final few minutes allowing Todd Singleton to be the 11th Blue Devil to score on the night as the senior stole the ball and went the length of the floor, finishing with an emphatic two-hand dunk.
Sophomore Chris Carrawell returned to the lineup for the Blue Devils after missing the last four games with a back injury. Carrawell played 18 minutes and came up with four boards and two blocked shots.
Duke hopes its level of intensity will carry over to Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference opener against Virginia.
"I can't wait for conference play to start," Wojciechowski said. "ACC basketball is the greatest. Right now we're getting used to playing with each other. It's just a process of getting better and better."
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