Smith helps Duke cruise

DURHAM --

Nolan Smith made his delayed debut for Duke last night and helped ignite a blowout of UNC Charlotte in a second-round game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke won 101-59 to advance to the semifinals Nov. 25 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Smith -- with his hustling, defense, shooting and rebounding -- was a major reason the Blue Devils surged to a 68-32 lead with 15:48 left.

Smith, a junior guard, scored eight of Duke's first 14 points and helped his team gain total control in less than nine minutes. He missed Duke's first two games while serving a school suspension for competing in unsanctioned summer-league play.

Smith laughingly said he was glad to have finally played in a "sanctioned" game.

"I was definitely itching to play," he said. "I was getting anxious to get back out there. My motor was ready."

Duke (3-0) built its streak of consecutive nonconference home wins to 71 games, the longest current streak in major-college basketball. Duke also improved to 3-0 all-time against UNCC.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke said that his team played its best all-around game of the season, in no small part because Smith was back and the lineup was almost normal.

"We played very well tonight, on both ends of the floor," Krzyzewski said. "I thought our defense set the tone for the whole game. We didn't give up fast breaks. We beat a good team pretty soundly."

UNCC (2-1) trailed 57-27 at halftime and was unable to make a comeback attempt in the second half.

Smith led Duke with 24 points, made 9 of 15 shots and added five assists and two steals. Jon Scheyer had 20 points and five assists, Kyle Singler scored 17 points, and Miles Plumlee had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Shamari Spears led UNCC with 20 points but none of his teammates scored more than six points.

Smith was aggressive from the start. Duke won the opening tip, and he drove quickly to the basket but missed a fading 12-foot jumper.

Scheyer stuck in a follow shot, and Duke was on its way.

Smith then hit a layup and two free throws to give Duke a 6-2 lead. Less than two minutes later he added a six-foot jumper, then scored at the end of a break to make it 14-2.

"I was ready to make plays," Smith said. "Coming back, we were all energized. Kyle and Jon told me how happy they were to have me back. I just wanted to play well and feed off of them."

Almost everything worked smoothly for the Blue Devils. Defensive pressure forced the 49ers into turnovers on seven of their first nine possessions, and that helped the Blue Devils to a 17-4 lead in less than four minutes.

Rebounding led to breaks. Crisp passing led to easy baskets. Duke constantly beat UNCC down the floor, and when it didn't, it still got open shots by working the ball around

Coach Bobby Lutz said that Duke won behind a "great" performance.

"They really imposed their will on us from the start," Lutz said. "They took us out of what we were trying to do. Hopefully this is the low point of the season (for us)."

Duke made 19 of its first 30 shots in taking a 46-22 lead and was averaging almost four points a minute then. The barrage never subsided. Duke led 48-22 when Andre Dawkins buried a 3-pointer to build the lead to 29. Spears, a former Boston College player, responded with a layup for UNCC, but Singler made two free throws and a layup, and Ryan Kelly hit a soft 10-foot jumper on the right baseline.

The lead was 57-24 with 3:06 left in the half, and nothing UNCC could do could knock Duke off its perch.

bcole@wsjournal.com.

UNCC Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Spears 26 6-16 7-8 3-4 1 2 20

Jones 17 1-3 1-2 2-4 0 2 3

Green 25 2-8 0-2 0-1 2 1 4

Harris 23 1-4 1-2 0-5 2 2 3

Coleman 20 1-4 0-0 0-0 1 0 2

Barnett 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Sherrill 16 0-2 3-4 1-5 0 4 3

Parks 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2

Andersen 14 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 3

Lewis 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3

Church 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Sirin 11 2-5 0-0 0-1 0 3 5

Bowden 14 1-6 2-2 0-1 0 2 5

Dewhurst 11 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 1 0

Braswell 18 3-5 0-1 3-9 0 3 6

Totals 200 20-59 14-21 12-34 6 20 59

Percentages: FG .339, FT .667. 3-Point Goals: 5-21, .238 (Lewis 1-1, Andersen 1-2, Sirin 1-2, Spears 1-3, Bowden 1-6, Church 0-1, Coleman 0-2, Green 0-4). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 17 (Jones 4, Spears 3, Harris 3, Braswell 3, Green 2, Sherrill, Coleman). Steals: 4 (Green 2, Sherrill, Spears).

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Singler 26 5-12 4-6 1-3 2 3 17

MiPlumlee 24 7-11 1-2 1-11 2 1 15

Thomas 16 0-2 1-2 1-1 2 4 1

Smith 32 9-15 4-4 2-5 5 1 24

Scheyer 29 7-13 2-4 2-6 5 2 20

Czyz 11 2-3 0-0 0-1 0 0 5

Dawkins 21 1-4 2-2 0-3 1 1 5

Kelly 16 2-3 0-0 0-2 2 2 5

Davidson 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Johnson 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Peters 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Zoubek 16 4-7 1-4 8-13 1 4 9

Totals 200 37-70 15-24 15-46 21 18 101

Percentages: FG .529, FT .625. 3-Point Goals: 12-21, .571 (Scheyer 4-7, Singler 3-4, Smith 2-3, Czyz 1-2, Kelly 1-2, Dawkins 1-3). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 4 (Scheyer, Kelly, Mi.Plumlee, Singler). Turnovers: 9 (Smith 3, Mi.Plumlee 2, Dawkins, Zoubek, Davidson, Singler). Steals: 7 (Scheyer 2, Mi.Plumlee 2, Smith 2, Zoubek).