Plumlee brothers Miles, Mason combine for 30 points as No. 8 Duke beats Wake Forest 90-70

Plumlees lead No. 8 Duke past Wake Forest 90-70

DURHAM, N.C. — Miles Plumlee had career highs of 19 points and 14 rebounds, younger brother Mason Plumlee added 11 points and No. 8 Duke pulled away to beat Wake Forest 90-70 on Sunday night.

Kyle Singler added 21 points and 15 rebounds and Nolan Smith had 20 points for the Blue Devils (15-2, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). They overcame a defense determined to stop leading scorer Jon Scheyer, broke the game open with 13 straight points midway through the second half and rolled to their 13th straight win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Al-Farouq Aminu had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (12-4, 2-2), who lost their 12th straight at Cameron and haven’t won here since 1997, when Tim Duncan was still in school.

It was the first time both Plumlees scored in double figures in the same game for the Blue Devils, who have won nine of 10. They remained perfect at home and 10 of their 11 victories here have come by at least 20 points.

Chas McFarland added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Wake Forest, which rallied from 12 points down early in the second half with a 17-5 run and tied it at 55 on Aminu’s dunk with 14:07 left.

Singler hit a 3-pointer 7 seconds later and Scheyer followed that with a three-point play. Then came the sequence that put Duke squarely in charge: Mason Plumlee soared in for a dunk and Wake Forest’s Ishmael Smith collided with him in mid-air, knocking the Blue Devils’ freshman to the floor. Official Ray Natili called it an intentional foul, despite the Demon Deacons’ protests.

Miles Plumlee stepped in for his baby brother and hit both free throws, Lance Thomas added a jumper and Smith capped the burst with a 3 to make it 68-55 with 11:47 left.

The traditionally guard-oriented Blue Devils knew 3-pointers were going to be hard to come by against the ACC’s best defense against the 3, and they finished 4-for-13 from long range. The Demon Deacons made it their mission to slow Scheyer, who scored nine points — nearly 11 fewer than his average — on 3-of-11 shooting and was held to single-digit scoring for the first time this season.

His backcourt mate, Smith, was 6-for-17 from the field for the Blue Devils, who have won 42 straight at Cameron against opponents other than North Carolina — a string that dates back to 2007.

Ari Stewart added 14 points for Wake Forest, which took its only lead midway through the first half after Aminu’s free throw capped an 11-2 spurt that put the Demon Deacons up 32-28 with 6:14 left. The Blue Devils then closed the half by outscoring Wake Forest 18-6, a run that included three follow-up baskets from point-blank range by Mason Plumlee — including a nifty reverse dunk off Singler’s missed jumper.

Scheyer’s 3 from the corner — the only points of the first half for the ACC’s second-leading scorer — with 7 seconds left made it 46-38 at the break. Thomas’ jumper 19 seconds into the second half made it 48-38 — the first double-figure lead by either team.