Bellarmine Knights vs Duke Blue Devils Box Score on Dec 04, 2020

Matthew Hurt made six 3-point shots on the way to 24 points as No. 6 Duke defeated visiting Bellarmine 76-54 on Friday night in Durham, N.C.

Hurt was 6 of 8 on 3-pointers as part of Duke's 13-of-26 shooting from long range. That included freshman Jaemyn Brakefield's 4 of 4, giving him 12 points.

It was a rude introduction to Division I for Bellarmine, which played its first game since moving up in classification from Division II. The Knights' first three scheduled games were called off because they were in a coronavirus-related quarantine.

The Blue Devils (2-1) responded from their setback Tuesday night against No. 8 Michigan State -- a 75-69 result that marked Duke's most-lopsided nonconference home loss in 25 years.

Against Bellarmine, the Blue Devils went with a starting lineup change as freshman post player Mark Williams was with the first-string unit for the first time and guard Jordan Goldwire was back as a starter after a game coming off the bench. Williams blocked four shots and led the Blue Devils with seven rebounds.

Hurt, who was 9 of 12 overall from the field, and Brakefield each had six rebounds. Duke shot 51.8 percent from the field.

Duke built a 12-2 lead -- half those points coming on a pair of Brakefield 3-pointers -- in slightly more than five minutes despite starting forward Jalen Johnson picking up two early fouls for the second straight game.

Brakefield soon added another 3 -- and that was more than Bellarmine's total field goals (2 of 10) at that juncture.

Nick Thelen's 14 points and Ethan Claycomb's 13 points paced Bellarmine.

Like Duke, Bellarmine has been a regular NCAA Tournament participant, but that came in Division II for the Knights.

In their season debut, the Knights didn't have a player with more than three points until almost 15 minutes into the game.

Duke was playing in between showdowns with Big Ten opponents, with a matchup against Illinois on Tuesday. Sunday's Elon-Duke game has been postponed because of coronavirus issues with the Elon program.

--Field Level Media