DURHAM, N.C. _ Duke just had to get the freshmen going. Sounds like a pretty simple game plan considering four of the five starters, and the top three scorers are all first-year players.
But they were needed to really get going for the Blue Devils to pull away from Boston College, 80-55.
The Duke freshmen _ Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones _ scored 60 of the teams first 68 points. The four former McDonald's All-Americans finished with a combined 70 points as the Blue Devils improved to 20-2 overall and 8-1 in the ACC.
Reddish led the way with 24 points, one off his career-high, followed by Barrett with 19. Williamson had 16 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. Jones finished with 11 points.
After a first half where the entire team struggled, Duke started the half by scoring on each of its first three possessions. Reddish started the half with a layup, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play from Barrett to make it 33-30. Reddish knocked down a 3 from the corner to make it a six-point lead.
Williamson and Jones did their part on the defensive end to start the second. Williamson blocked a Ky Bowman layup attempt to set up the 3 from Reddish and tight defense from Jones forced Bowman to air ball a shot from the top of the key.
Williamson scored under the basket on the other end and Reddish hit another triple, giving the rookies the first 13 points of the half for Duke. It also helped that the Blue Devils, who shot 1 for 15 from 3 in the first half, found their groove from behind the line in the second.
The freshmen did such a good job after regrouping at halftime that little was needed from the rest of the group. Marques Bolden (six points) and Alex O'Connell (four) were the only other two players to score for Duke.
The first half for the Blue Devils was forgettable. Duke shot 32 percent (12 for 38) from the floor and 1 for 15 from 3. The Blue Devils went on an early 8-0 run to take a 12-8 lead, but the rest of their first half runs weren't positive ones.
After the eight minute mark Duke went 0 for 6 from the floor, a scoring drought of 2:48, and the Eagles made enough baskets to pull to within three, 20-17.
The Blue Devils went nearly six minutes without a field goal, and Boston College made it a one-point game, 24-23, after a layup from Nik Popovic. The lowlight of the first half was a series when 6-11 center Marques Bolden missed a layup, gathered the rebound, and missed another layup from point blank range. It was part of a stretch where Duke missed four straight baskets. The Blue Devils ended the half hitting two of their last 11 shots and the Eagles took a 30-28 lead into the locker room.
The Eagles got a boost from Bowman, the North Carolina native who scored five in a row to give Boston College a four-point lead, 30-26. Reddish got a steal and a layup right before the buzzer to pull Duke within two.
The Blue Devils' offense went missing on more than one occasion during the first half. At one point in the first eight minutes of the game, Duke missed four of six shots from the floor, but still nursed a four-point lead. After a timeout, the Blue Devils missed nine straight field goals, their only points coming from a Williamson free throw, and two more from the line from Barrett.
The Blue Devils led by as many as seven (20-13) in the first half before their first cold streak. Boston College went on a 6-0 run to pull to within one, and chipped away just enough until Bowman's first 3 of the opening half gave the Eagles their second lead, a lead they would take into the locker room at halftime.
