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Singler, Duke too much for Purdue

Dec 3, 2008 - 6:35 AM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- Duke passed its first road test with flying colors and continued its dominance against the Big Ten Conference.

Kyle Singler had 20 points and 12 rebounds and Jon Scheyer also scored 20 as fourth-ranked Duke led from start to finish en route to a 76-60 victory over No. 10 Purdue on Tuesday.

Nolan Smith added 12 points for the Blue Devils (8-0), who improved to 10-0 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Playing its first ranked opponent and its first road game, Duke was aggressive on the boards and shut down Purdue's offense for the duration of the contest. The Boilermakers were outrebounded, 49-29.

"I'm proud of our guys," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We beat a really good team tonight. Our defense and rebounding was great tonight. We just rebounded better than them tonight and won."

With Mackey Arena rocking, both teams got off to slow starts. Duke scored the game's first seven points - despite missing its first four shots - before Purdue got on the board with Chris Kramer's jumper 4:11 into the game.

"It's important to get off to a good start in an environment like this," Krzyzewski said. "Purdue was so amped I think they missed on some easy plays and layups. They wanted it so bad."

But Duke started to make some shots and Singler had a pair of layups as Duke extended the lead to 22-12 with 9:20 left in the half.

The Blue Devils led by as many as 13 late in the first half before settling for a 36-28 advantage at the break.

Purdue missed its first seven shots to begin the second half and Duke stretched its lead to 45-31 with 15:45 left in the contest.

Duke held Purdue scoreless for nearly four minutes midway through the session and Singler's 3-pointer from the top of the arc pushed the Blue Devils' bulge to 55-36 with 11:04 remaining.

"Jon and Kyle played at an extremely high level tonight," Krzyzewski said. "Jon's a veteran, he's accustomed to big games like these. Playing against a physical team, you like to have the ball in these guys' hands because you know there (are) going to be fouls and they are automatic from the line."

The Boilermakers, who shot 37 percent (22-of-59) from the floor, never got closer than 10 the rest of the way. Purdue made just 2-of-13 from the arc.

Robbie Hummel scored 15 points and JaJuan Johnson had 12 to lead the Boilermakers (5-2), who were coming off an overtime loss to Oklahoma last Friday.

Purdue's leading scorer E'Twaun Moore did not score until there was 10:44 left in the game. He finished with 10 points.

"It's not often you get these opportunities to play teams that have this quality," Moore told the Indianapolis Star. "We definitely missed an opportunity, especially since they came on our court and beat us."