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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:29 p.m., Wednesday, January 7, 2009

CBKB: No. 2 Duke downs Curry-led Davidson, 79-67

By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer

DURHAM, N.C. — Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler scored 22 points apiece and No. 2 Duke held off a late Stephen Curry-led charge to beat Davidson 79-67 on Wednesday.

Gerald Henderson added 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting for the Blue Devils (13-1). They never trailed, outscored the Wildcats 20-7 to start the second half and withstood their late comeback attempt to win their 67th straight nonconference home game.

Curry, the nation's leading scorer, scored 29 points — the most Duke has allowed any player this season — on 10-of-22 shooting for Davidson (10-3), with 21 of those coming in the second half as he tried to rally his team from a 25-point deficit.

He scored eight straight points during a 14-2 spurt midway through the half to help the Wildcats close to 13.

Davidson then pulled to 69-61 on Andrew Lovedale's basket in the post with 3:53 left, but couldn't get any closer. Scheyer scored six points in the final 2 minutes — including the 1,000th of his career — to help Duke pull away late.

Duke thought it had taken control with an impressive burst to begin the second half, which included eight points from Henderson and two 3s by Scheyer. But the Blue Devils hung on long enough to drop Davidson to 3-34 against top-five teams while winning their 22nd straight in the series.

They haven't lost to the Wildcats since Mike Krzyzewski's second season at Duke in 1981 — the last time a non-Atlantic Coast Conference team from the state beat them at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

They were playing as the nation's No. 2 team for the first time since up-and-coming Wake Forest upset them last February, and started strong against Curry before the darling of last season's NCAA tournament found ways to create shots against the ACC's stingiest defense.

The Blue Devils ran either their point guards (Nolan Smith or Greg Paulus) or one of their longesr players (Singler or Lance Thomas) at the Davidson star. He was held scoreless until the 6-minute mark of the first half and missed his first four attempts before regrouping in the second half and making 6 of his 13 shots.

In the process, he moved into second place on the school's career scoring list with 2,040 points — eight more than Fred Hetzel.

Lovedale finished with 15 points for Davidson, which fell to 0-3 this season against ranked teams.