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No. 9 Duke tops Wake Forest 65-51

Jan 10, 2010 - 9:18 PM DURHAM, N.C.(AP) -- Bridgette Mitchell has made a career out of doing a little bit of everything.

She put all of her talents on display against Wake Forest.

Mitchell tied a career high with 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help No. 9 Duke defeat the Demon Deacons 65-51 on Sunday.

Jasmine Thomas added 13 points for the Blue Devils (14-2, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who beat the Demon Deacons for the 33rd consecutive time. Duke, which led 35-15 at halftime, overcame a sluggish second half to win its 23rd consecutive home game.

"In the first half, I thought we executed beautifully," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "In the second half, I thought we let up. I really thought there weren't too many people on our team who kept the energy for 40 minutes. I thought (Mitchell) did."

Mitchell was all over the floor, impacting the game inside and from the perimeter. The 6-foot senior scored seven of Duke's first 11 points, made two 3-pointers for the first time in her career and grabbed seven of Duke's 22 offensive rebounds.

The Blue Devils outrebounded Wake Forest 52-30, finishing with three more offensive rebounds than the Demon Deacons pulled down on the defensive end.

Lakevia Boykin scored 12 points to lead Wake Forest (10-6, 1-1 ACC), which shot 32 percent from the field. Brittany Waters added 10 points for the Demon Deacons, who never trailed by fewer than 14 points in the second half.

The Blue Devils blew open the game with a 19-0 spurt late in the first half. Duke held Wake Forest to 0-for-11 shooting from the field and forced five turnovers during the 8 1/2-minute run.

"The intensity was there in the first half," Mitchell said. "Everyone was everywhere early."

The Demon Deacons went 12 1/2 minutes with just one field goal before Tiffany Roulhac made an off-balance 3-pointer from the top of the key to beat the buzzer just before halftime.

"I thought for 28 minutes we played pretty good," Wake Forest coach Mike Petersen said. "For 12 minutes, we looked like we had never met each other, pretty much."

The Demon Deacons trimmed Duke's lead to 50-36 with 9:20 remaining, but Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer on Duke's next possession. Then she came up with a steal, which led to a jumper by Karima Christmas that pushed Duke's lead to 19 points.

Wake Forest, which lost its previous five games against the Blue Devils by an average of 40.6 points, suffered its 14th consecutive loss at Duke. The Demon Deacons would have come closer to ending that streak had they shot better than 13-for-25 on free throws, including 2-for-8 in the first half.

"I'm 2-for-8 putting it from 35 feet," Petersen said, referring to his golf game. "That's not good. We've got to be a little bit better than that from the free-throw line."