Duke battled a tenacious Lipscomb and a holiday-emptied Cameron before Scheyer clinched his 100th ACC win, extending their undefeated streak.
Duke Survives Bizarre First Half To Earn Jon Scheyer Career Win No. 100.
When Duke students leave town for the holidays, Cameron Indoor Stadium becomes a much less intimidating place to play.
Generally speaking, a home crowd consisting largely of middle-aged adults – rather than sleep-deprived, manically screaming college kids — provides less energy for the Blue Devils and less hostility towards the visiting team and officials. This difference in atmosphere generally leads to one non-conference scare per year in Durham.
Last year, it was Incarnate Word being within three points of the Cooper Flagg-led Devils closing in on halftime. In 2019, Stephen F. Austin actually pulled off an overtime upset.
On Tuesday night, Lipscomb applied the pressure on No. 3 Duke. After a competitive first half, the Blue Devils eventually pulled away from the visiting Bison, 97-73.
Lipscomb overcame a quick 10-0 deficit to score more points than any team has in a game against Duke this season. The Bison led for nearly 13 minutes in the first half and attempted 14 free throws on the road.
Entering this week, the Blue Devils' season high for turnovers in a game was 13. They had 16 in the first half on Tuesday night and finished with 22.
But eventually, Duke's size and talent proved to be overwhelming for the Bison. This disparity was most obvious on the boards, where the Devils possessed a 55-21 advantage. Freshman phenom Cameron Boozer led the way with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
Jon Scheyer made history with the win. He became the quickest coach to reach 100 wins at an ACC school. He hit the milestone in just 122 games, which breaks the previous mark (128 games) set by fellow Blue Devil legend Vic Bubbas in 1964.
At 11-0, Duke is off to its best start since 2017-2018. That team also began 11-0, but then lost its ACC opener against Boston College.
If these Blue Devils can improve to 12-0, which would require them to beat No. 19 Texas Tech inside Madison Square Garden on Saturday, it will be the program's best winning stream to open a season since the most recent national-title team's 14-0 start in 2014-2015.