The Duke-Wake Forest rematch started very slowly with both teams shooting poorly in the opening minutes of the first half. It took a bit but Duke warmed up and then really warmed up, en route to a 93-60 win.

Wake Forest scored quickly to go up 2-0 and then 4-2 but both teams struggled. Wake hit just 1-10 of their first ten shots and Duke wasn’t much better.

Wake’s second basket came at 14:49 which sounds kind of like a Tony Bennett special but the reality was neither team could buy a bucket early on.

Then Sion James hit a three and Cooper Flagg followed shortly after with a three of his own.

Wake Forest stayed in range for a bit, down 10-8 and 14-13 before Duke began to pull steadily away.

The Blue Devils threw an absolute blanket over Wake’s Cameron Hildreth, who has played brilliantly lately. In the seven previous games, Hildreth scored 24, 22, 23, 22, 16, 22 and 28 points.

And against Duke Monday night?

A goose egg.

Hildreth was totally shut down.

This was a big concern or us before the game because we thought that, without Tyrese Proctor, Duke would have a hard time matching up with Wake’s big, physical guard.

But Proctor did play, and started, and played well.

And not only did Duke totally negate Hildreth, Hunter Sallis, who is a tremendous offensive force, was held to nine points on 3-10 shooting.

Surprisingly, Efton Reid and Ty-Laur Johnson were the leading scorers for Wake Forest with 14 each, and Reid, who has hit just 20 threes during his four-year career (20-81 for 24.7 percent), led Wake Forest with 2-5 from deep.

Duke took a 40-27 lead into halftime and in the second, while it took a few minutes, just erupted.

As we said, the Blue Devils started slow in the first half, but in the second, hit 53.8 percent and eight threes and the points seemed to come in bunches. Basketball is a rhythm and when you get one going, it’s a blast to watch.

Almost everyone ultimately got going. Cooper Flagg had another dominant performance with 28 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Kon Knueppel had 17 points and five rebounds, including four offensive.

In his return, Tyrese Proctor had 12 points, four rebounds and two assists. Sion James had 11 points and while Khaman Maluach had just four points, missing two or three chippies, he had an impressive 14 rebounds. Mason Gillis had 11 off the bench and Isaiah Evans had eight.

And while Duke missed about three dunks, the Blue Devils also forced three shot clock violations and Wake had to call a couple of timeouts when they couldn’t get the ball in bounds.

In the second half, the Devils converted on 70 percent of their possessions and pulled down 10 offensive rebounds. Duke also assisted on 19 of 32 baskets.

There were a lot of great moments in this one but our favorite moment came late when Patrick Ngongba went to the court to pick up a loose ball. He didn’t have an easy pass so, while flat on his back, he chucked the ball over a couple of Wake defenders to where two teammates were lurking. It was an unexpected bit of brilliance

With the win, Duke moves to 18-1 and has at least a share of first place. The final game of course will be at Carolina on Saturday. UNC is playing much better than they were earlier and will be a challenge. But if Duke can pull that off, they’ll go into the ACC Tournament with a nice tailwind.

Notes – is it just us, or has Maluach been playing with more of an edge lately? He’s come close to mixing it up several times…one other notable play was when Flagg sidestepped a Wake defender en route to a dunk…Proctor appeared fine after missing a game with a bone bruise…we’re not sure anyone has improved as much as Ngongba has…he didn’t score Monday but he had six rebounds in 14 minutes…Duke hammered the Deacs on the boards, 45-33 and 18-12 offensively…Wake had 15 turnovers and just seven assists…Duke shot well in the second half but overall hit just 47.2 percent and 35.9 from behind the line yet this is the second game in a row where Duke didn’t shoot that well and still built a 40 point lead…this is the fourth game in a row where Duke had at least a 35 point lead…

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