Duke easily romps past Quakers

DURHAM, N.C. - The opening minutes of Sunday's game between Penn and Duke looked a lot like the last time the teams played.

In December 2009, Duke trampled the Quakers, 114-55, in the biggest defeat in Penn history. And after a 20-4 run to start the game, the Blue Devils appeared poised to have history repeat itself.

The end result was the same, but it was a lot less ugly as No. 7 Duke defeated Penn, 85-55.

The Quakers looked skittish from the start, unwilling to attack the basket and unable to get anything on the glass. Forward Mason Plumlee, at 6-foot-10, dominated Penn in the paint, while Ryan Kelly rained shots from the perimeter.

Kelly hit his first four shots, including three three-pointers, while Plumlee got Duke multiple second opportunities with his offensive rebounding effort. The Blue Devils rebounded five of their first six misses.

"It's tough to win on the road anywhere if you don't get stops defensively," Penn coach Jerome Allen said. "And when we did, we didn't come up with the defensive rebounds."

Leading scorer Zach Rosen struggled to get the offense flowing against Duke's tough, man-to-man defense. In the team's previous three games, Rosen had troubles from the field, going 12 for 37 for 35 points. He continued his woes against Duke, not getting his first bucket until 10 minutes, 23 seconds were left in the first half and finishing with 11 points on 5-for-13 shooting.

Duke succeeded in taming Rosen with the help of good ball-screen defense. Rosen uses high screens to get into the paint and distribute the ball, but Duke's big men were able to fight the screens and defend the lane.

Shooting guard Tyler Bernardini entered the game having made 20 three-pointers in the previous four games but was held to 2-of-5 shooting and just 1 for 2 from deep. He finished with seven points after playing just 26 minutes due to foul trouble.

"Our goal was to really play Rosen and Bernardini, because I think they're two of the better guards we've played against," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.