Seth Curry scored 23 points as No. 2 Duke Blue Devils thrash Temple Owls 90-67 at the Izod Center Von Saturday night.
Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has 936 wins against his name, led the his team 9-0 to start the current season and had a wonderful start 15 times during his illustrious coaching career.
''I couldn't expect to be 9-0,'' The Associated Press quoted Krzyzewski as saying. ''I have dealt with unrealistic expectations since 1986. I deal with them every summer with the U.S. team. It's a good place to be. I'd rather have people expect something of you than not expect something good of you."
''We're a beatable team. We just haven't been beat yet. With our conference we'll be tested a lot,'' he further added.
For the Duke, Mason Plumlee scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while Ryan Kelly had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Duke top scorer Curry, who came back from an injury and was not going at full strength in practice, performed very well from the 3-point arc and had 5 of 9 attempts.
''He had good hard practices yesterday and the day before,'' Krzyzewski said. ''When he gets going we have to call stuff for him and we did.''
Duke put pressure on the Blue Devils from the start and outscored them in the first half 46-32. The second half was also dominated by the Owls.
Curry's seven points in a row extended the Blue Devils' lead further and he then shot a three point with 3:38 minutes remaining, to give No. 2 Duke a 20-point lead.
''Curry was great today,'' Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. ''He stepped up and did what he had to do. When we were just sniffing to get back in it, he hit some tough shots. That's a fabulous team and a fabulous coach.''
Quinn Cook added 14 points and made three 3-pointers and five from the field for Duke.
The Blue Devils, who played Saturday's game after seven days, will play their next game against Cornell Big Red on Dec. 19.
''I think it shows we're pretty mature,'' Curry said. ''We've been off all week and we came out and played with the same aggressiveness, the same way we've been playing the first few weeks of the season. We knew we had a good team, but this team could beat us. We knew we had to come out here and play well.''
The Blue Devils scored 44 points in the second half, against the Owls' 35, to continue their winning streak.
The winners had a better shot percentage, with 28 of 59 from the field and 12 three pointers, while Temple 29 out of 73 attempts from the field and only eight 3-pointers in the game.
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