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Sunday, January 6
Durham, N.C.
5:30 p.m.
Duke University
81
vs
67
Cornell
Nelson Leads No. 9 Duke Past Cornell, 81-67
1/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - DeMarcus Nelson matched a season high with 23 points and No. 9 Duke shook off a slow start to beat Cornell 81-67 on Sunday night.
Kyle Singler added 14 points for the Blue Devils (11-1), who were coming off a 16-day layoff and eventually pulled away for their NCAA-best 58th straight nonconference victory at home.
Gerald Henderson scored 12 points and Greg Paulus added 11 for Duke, which only briefly trailed late in the first half and took command early in the second with a 13-3 run. The victory gave coach Mike Krzyzewski his 786th career victory, tying Lefty Driesell for sixth on the all-time wins list.
Ryan Wittman had 13 points and 7-foot center Jeff Foote added 10 for Cornell (6-5), which was denied its first victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference team in 56 seasons.
Nelson matched the 23 points he scored in Duke's most recent home game, a 111-70 rout of Albany, and was one point shy of his career high set last season against George Mason.
Duke took its first double-figure lead just before halftime, using an 11-2 burst keyed by Henderson to make it 41-31 with 50 seconds left.
The Blue Devils then gave themselves some breathing room with their big second-half run, which started with freshman Nolan Smith's layup at the 18:30 mark making it 43-37. The run ended 4 minutes later on Paulus's jumper from just inside the arc, making it 54-40.
Paulus then gave Duke its largest lead of the game when he took a flip from Lance Thomas and knocked down a 3 from the key to make it 59-44.
The Big Red didn't get closer than eight the rest of the way and the Ivy League favorites extended their struggles against ranked teams, dropping their 13th straight and falling to 3-58 all-time against Top 25 foes since knocking off No. 19 California in 1992.
Still, they threw more of a scare than expected into the Blue Devils, who were coming off the longest in-season layoff since 1945-46 and hadn't played since Dec. 20, when No. 13 Pittsburgh beat them 65-64 in overtime in New York.
Cornell kept things close early and took a brief lead when Jason Hartford's layup with 7:28 before halftime made it 24-22. Duke regained the lead for good 2 minutes later when Jon Scheyer's 3-pointer from the right wing made it 28-27.
Duke's lineup at tipoff had a different look ? Paulus and Thomas started on the bench, Smith made his first career start and 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek started for the second time this season.
Players Mentioned
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