Devils roll in opener

Defense steps up in second half

DURHAM -- Mike Krzyzewski was happy on Sunday and it had nothing to do with North Carolina's loss.

It wasn't just that Duke beat Virginia Tech 69-44 to open the ACC season, but that the Blue Devils allowed only 13 points in the second half in the process.

That's the kind of defensive effort Coach K dreams about.

"Single digits would have been better," Duke guard Jon Scheyer joked. "Our defense in the second half, I'd say Coach was happy with that."

The Blue Devils were all smiles after a 25-point rout in what has been a competitive series since Virginia Tech joined the ACC.

The Hokies won the previous meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium in January 2007, beating then-No. 5 Duke 69-67 in overtime. The Hokies couldn't repeat the upset of the No. 5 team in the country and ended up with their lowest point total since Jan. 2000.

That's what put a smile on Krzyzewski's face, not UNC's 85-78 loss to Boston College.

"I know the result," Coach K said, "but when you're a Cubs fan, you don't scoreboard watch."

The Blue Devils (12-1) were focused on the Hokies (9-5) from the jump, charging out to a 14-2 lead. When Virginia Tech made it a close game in the early moments of the second half, Duke ripped off another 14-2 run.

The Hokies scored the first four points of the second half to make it 39-35, and Krzyzewski called a timeout.

His defense then responded by allowing two points in the next 6 1/2 minutes and only nine points for the rest of the game.

"We had a chance to win the game at the 16-minute timeout and then we stunk it up," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

In the second half, the Hokies made 6 of 18 field goal attempts, shooting 0-for-6 from 3-point range.

"The defense was outstanding," Krzyzewski said. "We were talking [and] switching."

The offense wasn't bad either. Kyle Singler's 19 points and seven assists led a balanced effort, highlighted by a strong first half from Gerald Henderson (15 points).

While Singler, Henderson and Scheyer (11 points) were hitting 3-pointers, dunks and running hook shots to build up the early advantage, Virginia Tech went the game's first 6 minutes, 30 seconds without a field goal and started 1-of-12 from the floor.

Duke's lead ballooned to 32-19 on a vicious dunk by Henderson, on a pretty high-low feed from Singler at the 5:40 mark in the first half.

The athletic Hokies kept Duke from closing the first half with a flourish. Malcolm Delaney popped off six of his eight first-half points to cut the margin to 39-31 at the break.

The Hokies scored the first four points of the second half but were then swallowed by Duke's defense.

Brian Zoubek and Nolan Smith started the second-half run with consecutive layups, and a 3-pointer from Greg Paulus made it 53-39 at 11:12, all but putting the Hokies back on the bus to Blacksburg.

By the time Duke forced turnovers on three straight possessions, Greenberg had no choice but to call a timeout at the 6:10 mark down 64-42, prompting an ecstatic Krzyzewski to greet his team on the floor with a round of applause.

"It's good to start out this way for us," Krzyzewski said.

No matter what else happened around the conference.