DURHAM - The Elon University men's basketball team was sticking with the No. 1 team in the nation.

With time winding down in the first half, the Phoenix was only down five points to the Duke University Blue Devils. Then, Duke sophomore guard Quinn Cook hit a highly-contested, desperation heave from near half-court to put Duke up by eight going into halftime.

The Blue Devils never looked back, winning their second game in two nights and defeating Elon 76-54 Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"Overall, it was a good game for us because you are fighting human nature and the other team, and we won in both cases," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "The season is not going to be a perfect one, and I am proud that we kept playing defense and you have to just muck things up for a while and then all of a sudden we got that spurt."

Duke senior forward Mason Plumlee had 21 points and 15 rebounds to lead all players in both categories. The Blue Devils shot 43.3 percent from the field and hit 11-of-19 from three-point range, getting seven of those in the second half.

"We were faced with a daunting task, which is exactly what we wanted when we were fortunate to schedule the game. We knew that," said Elon head coach Matt Matheny. "I felt like we competed for 40 minutes. When you play a team as good as Duke, and I’ve been in this building quite a few times, you are challenged on every possession. Not only does Duke have really talented players, but they play every possession as if it’s the most important possession. That's what we're striving for in our program."

Matheny felt he got that from his team "most of the first half." Undaunted by a dunk from Plumlee just 14 seconds into the game, the Phoenix fought in the first 20 minutes and led twice, 11-9 a little over five minutes into the contest and 21-20 with 7:16 to play in the half.

"We wanted to attack them and that was the mindset going in," said Elon sophomore guard Austin Hamilton. "That was our gameplan - just to attack and don’t play tentative. If you do that against the No. 1 team in the country, they’ll bury you. I think we did a very good job of getting on them early."

The game was knotted at 25 with 5:23 when Duke began a 19-8 run that lasted 9:16 into the second half, putting the Blue Devils up 54-35. Duke senior forward Ryan Kelly, who had 14 points and five rebounds, cited Cook's big shot as a critical point.

"That was a big play," Kelly said. "Whenever you can go into a half with a play like that, it obviously energizes you. We felt like we didn't play - especially offensively - as well as we could have in the first half. Our defense was there, for the most part, for the whole game."

The Phoenix struggled from the floor, shooting just 38.5 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from three-point range. Elon also got in serious foul trouble early. Junior forward Lucas Troutman, the team's second-leading scorer, picked up two fouls just six minutes into the game. He only played six scoreless minutes in the first half. Fellow junior forward Ryley Beaumont was only on the floor for nine minutes after getting two fouls of his own.

Sophomore forward Ryan Winters and freshman center Tony Sabato came in and contributed solid minutes, especially late in the first half. Junior guard Sebastian Koch said he was proud of the way they played.

"They can play," he said. "I’m really proud of those guys to come in here and play hard. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. Even though we lost today, they played their hearts out and we will learn from this experience."

In the second half, the Blue Devils seemed to clutch the dominance they were inching towards in the first 20 minutes. The Phoenix turned the ball over nine times in the second frame and Plumlee notched ten points and seven rebounds in the second half despite playing most of it with three fouls.

Duke won the second half 41-27, keyed by 53.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the last 20 minutes, and pulled away for good.

"They played like the No. 1 team in the country in the second half," Hamilton said. "I can’t take anything away from them, they were a really good team. I thought we made some mistakes that led to their run. It’s hard to bounce back against a team that good. I respect them and we’ve just got to keep working and we’ll be alright."

Elon was led by Koch's 14 points and nine rebounds, hitting 4-of-5 from three-point range. After a rough first half, Troutman managed to dump in 13 points in the second 20 minutes. Junior guard Jack Isenbarger had 12 points and four rebounds.

The Phoenix, who holds the best assist/turnover ratio in the Southern Conference, had ten assists and 17 turnovers, something Krzyzewski was pleased with.

"A lot of the games there are single-digits assists, and today there are ten and then there are more turnovers than assists," he said. "I like that about our team. I think we have played really hard on the defensive end even though at times, like especially tonight when we weren't sharp on the offensive end, but you have to give credit to them. They are playing hard. They are playing good defense, and then we just had that spurt."

Despite the loss, Matheny said he liked what the game meant for the growth of the Elon program.

"What I told them in the locker room after the game is we have a chance to be special," he said. "We were challenged tonight on every possession, and we answered the bell on a lot of those possessions, but in order to compete at this level on a consistent basis, we have to learn that every possession matters. We’re still learning that."

Elon will next face Columbia University at 4 p.m. Saturday to try to earn its first win in 18 days and avenge a Jan. 8 loss to the Lions last season.

"We’ve just got to get our rest, blot this game out of the way, it’s over, come out and focus on Columbia," Hamilton said. "We owe them, they got us at home last year, so we’re going to play with a chip on our shoulder."

Game Notes

  • Cook had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Blue Devils. Freshman guard Rasheed Sulaimon added 13 points and four assists. Sophomore guard Seth Curry had just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting.
  • The score could have been much worse if not for Duke's free throw shooting. Evidenced by Curry missing three in a row early, the Blue Devils made just 7-of-16 from the charity stripe.
  • Playing in an environment like Cameron Indoor Stadium could have been intimidating for the Phoenix, but Koch said there was no fear. "We weren’t scared coming into this game," he said. "A couple of us had played here before our freshmen year, and that was the time where we were like, ‘Oh man, we’re in Cameron Indoor.’ But this time we weren’t scared at all, so we were putting on a fight."
  • Junior forward Eghoesa Edomwonyi did not play for the Phoenix. Matheny said postgame that he had a "sore shoulder," an injury that happened in practice. Senior forward Roger Dugas played in his first game back from a suspension and an injury, grabbing one rebound in three minutes.