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Singler helps Duke hold off Rhode Island

Nov 17, 2008 - 12:45 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Kyle Singler saved Duke from a rare defeat.

Singler scored six of his 21 points in the final two minutes to lead the fifth-ranked Blue Devils to a 82-79 victory over Rhode Island on Sunday.

Duke is now 131-4 against unranked non-conference opponents at home since the 1997-98 season. The last unranked non-conference foe to win in Cameron Indoor Stadium is St. John's in February 2000. Rhode Island, however, gave Duke a scare.

Jimmy Baron hit eight 3-pointers and finished with 24 points for the Rams. He hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put the Rhode Island up 74-68 with 4:03 to play, but was bottled in the closing minutes.

Baron had a jumper from the baseline partially blocked by Singler with 4.9 seconds to go. After a pair of free throws by Jon Scheyer put Duke up three, Baron missed a potential tying 3-pointer from halfcourt at the horn.

Scheyer scored 23 points for the Blue Devils (3-0). He was 5-of-12 from the field and 13-of-13 from the line.

Duke closed out the first half on an 11-0 run but Rhode Island (1-1) led 34-33 at the break despite committing 12 turnovers.

Delroy James added a career-high 21 points for the Rams, who were 10-of-14 from the arc thanks to Baron's sharp shooting. Baron made 7-of-8 3-pointers in the second half.

Nolan Smith and Lance Thomas each scored 10 points for Duke, which has won an NCAA-best 62 straight home games against non-conference opponents.

Thomas scored all 10 of his points in the second half while Singler had 16 and Scheyer added 15 after the break.