The No. 2 men's basketball team finished off its non-conference schedule for the time being Tuesday by handily defeating the Fairfield Stags 99-58 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
As has been the trend all season long, a sluggish opening few minutes for the Blue Devils was turned around by stellar defensive play.
"We just played really well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "After about the first four or five minutes, our defense started clicking in and we forced a lot of turnovers--it was tough for them to get really good shots."
In extending their winning steak to eight games, the Blue Devils (11-1, 1-0 in the ACC) produced their highest offensive output of the season while limiting Fairfield (7-4, 1-0 in the MACC) to its third-lowest output of the season. Duke also forced 25 Stags turnovers and held them to 37.5 percent shooting from the field by continually and aggressively playing passing lanes and hounding dribblers.
"Duke was unbelievable," Fairfield coach Tim O'Toole said. "They attack you from so many different areas, and their defense is just unbelievable."
Although the game was back-and-forth for the first 10 minutes--with 9:39 remaining in the first half, the score was 22-19 Duke--the Blue Devils went on a 18-2 run over the next four minutes to break it open. Fairfield would not get within 14 points for the rest of the game.
While Duke maintained a balanced attack throughout the night--five players scored in double figures--senior point guard Chris Duhon had arguably his best game of the season. While guiding the offense, Duhon scored a game-high 20 points and had nine assists, seven steals and a block in an unusually light 29 minutes of action.
"I just took good shots and they fell," Duhon said. "I also made free throws--that's another big point."
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