Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith lead No. 6 Duke to 67-55 victory over Virginia Tech

Singler, Smith lead No. 6 Duke past Va Tech 67-55

DURHAM, N.C. — Kyle Singler had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Nolan Smith added 23 points and No. 6 Duke pulled away late to beat Virginia Tech 67-55 on Sunday night.

Jon Scheyer had 15 points for the Blue Devils (23-4, 11-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). They used a late 14-4 run to overcome their only deficit of the second half and earn their sixth straight victory.

Malcolm Delaney, the ACC’s leading scorer, finished with 19 points for Virginia Tech (21-5, 8-4), which fell to 1-17 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. His 3-pointer capped a 13-5 run and put the Hokies up 45-44 with 9:55 left.

Smith followed with a three-point play roughly 30 seconds later and scored seven points during the decisive burst that followed. Scheyer finished the spurt with a 3 that made it 60-49 with 4:15 to play. Tech didn’t get closer than six after that.

Duke’s three Ss — Singler, Scheyer and Smith — combined for all but four of the team’s points. The only other Blue Devils players to score: Miles Plumlee, who hit a free throw with 13:29 before the break, and 7-foot-1 Brian Zoubek, who converted a three-point play with 7:12 remaining.

Zoubek finished with 16 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who ran their winning streak at Cameron to 17. They’re 15-0 here this season, with 14 wins coming by double figures and 11 by at least 20 points.

This one featured the ACC’s top two scorers, with Delaney averaging roughly 20 points and Scheyer scoring 19 per game. But both players had trouble hitting with consistency in a physical game marked by rough defense.

Delaney shot just 5 of 19 and missed nine of his first 10 attempts for the Hokies, who were 2 for 15 from 3-point range. Scheyer was 4 for 19 for the Blue Devils, who shot 29 percent.

Dorenzo Hudson added 12 points for the Hokies, who had their five-game ACC winning streak snapped, a run that was their longest since joining the league. They were trying to beat North Carolina and Duke in the same season for the first time since 2007 — also the last time they reached the NCAA tournament.

Both teams entered this one with more than 20 wins, but they got there in vastly different ways. One online replication of the RPI formula determined that the Blue Devils played the nation’s third-toughest schedule while Tech’s was at No. 152.

But the way the Hokies kept attacking Duke, that didn’t seem to matter.

The Blue Devils’ offense came almost exclusively from Scheyer, Singler and Smith, who combined for all but one of the team’s 35 first-half points, with each cracking double figures by halftime.