Hoyas Held Down by Blue Devils

Durham, N.C. -- Gerald Henderson scored 23 points and No. 3 Duke held on to beat No. 13 Georgetown 76-67 on Saturday for its eighth straight victory.

Kyle Singler added 15 points and 16 rebounds and Jon Scheyer had 11 points for the Blue Devils (16-1). They shot 48.6 percent in winning their Division I-best 68th straight nonconference game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

DaJuan Summers scored 21 points in his 17th straight double-figure game, and Austin Freeman added 15 for the Hoyas (12-4).

Freshman Greg Monroe — who was recruited hard by Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski — finished with 12 points, but was called for a technical foul with about 15 minutes remaining that swung momentum back to the Blue Devils.

Georgetown trailed by 15 points in the second half before clawing back in the game with a 13-2 run early in the second half, pulling to 46-42 on Summers' free throw with 15 1/2 minutes left.

But roughly 30 seconds later, Henry Sims was whistled for a blocking foul near the baseline and Monroe objected, prompting the technical foul from official John Cahill.

Scheyer knocked down the two free throws that followed to start the game-breaking 15-3 run that included a crucial 25-footer from Greg Paulus. Nolan Smith capped the burst by finger-rolling a drive through the lane to make it 61-45 with 10 1/2 minutes left.

Georgetown got no closer than five points the rest of the way, pulling to 72-67 on Omar Wattad's 3-pointer with 38 seconds left before Duke hit four free throws in the final 30 seconds.

Paulus finished with 10 points for the Blue Devils, who found themselves in a rare close non-ACC game at Cameron. The Hoyas were just the second nonconference team in two seasons to stay within single digits, but couldn't become the first non-league team to win here since fellow Big East member St. John's in 2000.

The Blue Devils became just the 12th team in three-plus seasons to shoot at least 45 percent against Georgetown — and Henderson's shooting touch, especially in the first half, had a lot to do with that.

The athletic swingman, in his third straight game with 19 or more points, had 17 at halftime and knocked down his first seven shots. That included 3-pointers 40 seconds apart late in the half, and after the second of those swished through over Julian Vaughn, Henderson could only shrug his shoulders in disbelief.

Those 3s came during a dominant stretch for Duke, which held the Hoyas without a field goal during the final 7 1/2 minutes of the half while outscoring them 17-2.