No. 1 Duke 76, Elon 54
Duke’s shooters didn’t need to be as accurate as usual — not with Mason Plumlee dominating inside the way he did.
Plumlee had 21 points and 15 rebounds, and the host Blue Devils beat Elon for their 100th consecutive nonconference win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Ryan Kelly added 14 points, freshman Rasheed Sulaimon had 13 and the Blue Devils (11-0) built a 43-32 rebounding advantage — the first time this season they outrebounded an opponent by more than 10. The Blue Devils’ 15 offensive boards led to 19 second-chance points.
“If we can add rebounding to what we do, I think that’ll take us to another level as a team,” Plumlee said.
Playing on back-to-back nights, Duke counted on its defense to pick up an offense that was off more than usual.
“I thought we were mentally tired. You could see it in our faces,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Duke shot 43 percent but forced 17 turnovers and turned them into 19 points while holding the Phoenix to just five offensive rebounds. Put another way: Plumlee and Quinn Cook — Duke’s 6-foot-1 point guard — each had seven defensive boards, meaning they each had more rebounds under Elon’s basket than all of the Phoenix did.
No. 2 Michigan 93, Eastern Michigan 54
Host Michigan (12-0) went on a 16-0 run early to take command and routed Eastern Michigan (6-4). Trey Burke’s layup with 15:06 left in the first half broke a 6-6 tie and gave Michigan a lead it never gave up. Tim Hardaway Jr. led Michigan with 17 points and a career-high seven assists and Nik Stauskas scored 16.
