(Originally posted Monday at 6:43 p.m., updated with links at 5:49 a.m.)

Playing in front of a packed house in Cameron Indoor Stadium and a national television audience on ESPN, the Duke Blue Devils showed everyone watching why they are the top-ranked team in the nation, blitzing Bucknell 84-50 in the final pre-conference tune-up for both teams.

It was a dominant performance on both ends of the floor by the Blue Devils, who held Bucknell to a season-low 30.9 percent from the field while shooting 54.2 percent at their own offensive end.

"They were good. They were really good," said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery, succinctly summing things up in two sentences.

Pressing and trapping the full 94-feet from the outset, the Blue Devils took Bucknell completely out of its offense, especially in the first half, when the Bison committed 13 turnovers and shot just 7-27 (25.9 percent) from the field. Bucknell finished the game with 20 turnovers, its second highest number of giveaways all season. It would have easily been more than the 21 they made against Division III Haverford (which was in part due to the deep end of the bench seeing a lot of minutes against the Fords) had Mike Krzyewski not called off the pressure about midway through the second half.

Krzyewski's strategy was simple: force Bucknell's worst ballhandler, power forward Darren Mastropaolo to handle the ball in the backcourt by making the Bison throw the ball back to him after he inbounded it following made shots.

"It disrupts their offense. We felt they were such a good team we had to," said Krzyewski.

In reality, the Blue Devils probably did not need the full court press to give them an edge. Quicker and more athletic at every position than Bucknell, Duke did plenty of disrupting by beating Bucknell players to their spots when they cut. The Devils played in the passing lanes, getting deflection after deflection and when Bucknell did catch the ball, it seemed there was always a Duke defender there slapping at it.

"They get in the passing lanes and do all that quickness stuff. Their pressure hurt us," Flannery said.

Even when Bucknell did get open looks at the basket, it seemed they were rushing their shots, seldom getting their feet set and their shoulders square to the bucket.

At Duke's offensive end, 6-9 center Sheldon Williams was all but unstoppable, hitting 10-17 for a game-high 23 points. Williams also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double, his sixth of the season.

"The key to them is Williams and he was just a man (tonight). He does everything," Flannery said.

"Williams' offensive dominance caused all kinds of headaches for Bucknell. Bucknell sophomore Darren Mastropaolo was in foul trouble early, picking up three personals in the first half. And with Williams getting so much attention, time and time again it allowed 6-10 freshman Josh McRoberts to get free for easy buckets. McRoberts finished with 14 points, most of which came off of dunks.

"The thing about the foul trouble with us is that when Darren Mastropaolo gets in foul trouble, we have a 6-7 or 6-6 guy playing in the post. That is fine in our league, but down here, now you have to worry about defensive transition, you have to worry about matching up, and they exploit you on those things," Flannery said.

For all intents and purposes, the game was decided well before the intermission. Duke broke out to a 17-2 lead and built the margin to 20 (32-12) by the 9:05 mark that stretched to 42-19 at the break.

Bucknell opened the second half with a quick 9-0 run to cut its deficit to 14, but the Blue Devils responded with 6 quick points by Williams to key a 12-0 run and never looked back.

Chris McNaughton had 15 to lead Bucknell, but the nation's No. 2 ranked shooter (in field goal percentage) was just 4-11. McNaughton came in shooting 69.2 percent from the field. The only other bright spot for the Bison was freshman Jason Vegotsky, ho came off the bench to hit 4-5 from three-point range, finishing with 12 points.

J.J. Redick, the national player of the year last season and the nation's second leading scorer this season, finished with 22 for Duke, despite struggling from three-point range. Duke's all-time leading three-point shooter was just 2-11 from the arc. It was Redick's eighth 20-point game of the season and the 50th of his career.

Senior guard Sean Dockery also was in double figures for the Blue Devils with 10 points. McRoberts added 0 rebounds to his 4 points to give Duke a pair of double-doubles.

The road-weary Bison will return to action Saturday when they open Patriot League play at Navy.

Box score

Raleigh News & Observer

AP story

Charlotte Observer

Greensboro News-Record