No. 21 Duke knocks off Notre Dame, 75-65
Matthew Hurt scored 18 points as No. 21 Duke defeated host Notre Dame 75-65 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams Wednesday night in South Bend, Ind.
The Blue Devils (3-2) won a game over major-conference opponent for the first time this season in what was their first road game of the season.
DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach, a pair of freshmen, excelled by scoring 16 and 14 points, respectively. Classmate Jaemyn Brakefield added 10 points off the bench.
Duke made 8 of 15 three-point attempts. Steward's seven rebounds helped the Blue Devils to a 33-23 edge on the boards.
Duke played without freshman forward Jalen Johnson, a first-team All-ACC preseason selection who suffered a foot injury during the past week in practice.
Dane Goodwin's 25 points and Prentiss Hubb's 12 points paced Notre Dame (2-3), which shot 46.9 percent from the field. Goodwin made 10 of 12 attempts from the field, including four 3-pointers.
Hubb had averaged 18.3 points per game against ranked opponents, a total of eight games, during the past two seasons.
Duke broke out to a 17-7 lead and kept a lead that wavered between five and 11 points throughout the rest of the first half. The Blue Devils held a 41-34 edge at halftime.
Hurt didn't make a 3-pointer (0 for 2), but he made 8 of 17 attempts from the field. The Blue Devils won despite taking just five free throws -- and making them all.
Duke is 50-18 all-time in ACC openers, including 31-10 in ACC openers under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
By winning, Duke has avoided losing more two games prior to Christmas for the first time since the 1982-83 season, when it started 2-4. That's also the last time they had a losing record through five games (2-3) in what was Krzyzewski's third season with the Blue Devils.
This marked the fifth time in a six-season span that the Blue Devils began ACC play with a road game.
This was Duke's final game prior to Christmas as the team opted out of playing any more nonconference games in the regular season.
--Field Level Media
