Coach K ties Smith, No. 1 Duke beats Elon 98-72

[December 21, 2010]  DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Kyle Singler scored 24 points to help No. 1 Duke beat Elon 98-72 on Monday night, moving coach Mike Krzyzewski into a tie for second place on the all-time wins list.

Nolan Smith added 22 points as the Blue Devils (11-0) gave their Hall of Fame coach his 879th win in 36 seasons at Duke and Army. Krzyzewski is now tied with Dean Smith, who spent 36 seasons at rival North Carolina before retiring in 1997 as the winningest coach Division I history.

Krzyzewski can pass Smith by beating North Carolina-Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum on Dec. 29. That would leave only Bobby Knight ahead of him, as Knight passed Smith with 902 wins before retiring almost three years ago.

Andre Dawkins scored 17 off the bench for Duke, which took control with a 14-0 first-half run but couldn't put away the Phoenix (4-7) until the final 6 minutes.

Coming off a nine-day exam break, Duke looked flat and a step slow against a program that had never played the nation's top-ranked team since moving to Division I in the 1999-2000 season. In fact, outside of that 14-0 spurt that gave the Blue Devils a 21-8 lead on Singler's 3-pointer with 12 1/2 minutes before halftime, Elon -- currently 0-3 in the Southern Conference -- played Duke even over the next 26 minutes and trailed just 75-62 on a pair of free throws from Chris Long with 6:34 to play.

The Blue Devils finally closed it out with an 8-0 spurt led by Smith, who sat for about 9 minutes of the second half after picking up his fourth foul. First, he rebounded a missed jumper from Ryley Beaumont and led the break before finding Dawkins for a 3 from the right wing while drawing a foul from Long.

Dawkins made the free throw, then Seth Curry added a pair of free throws before Smith capped the spurt with a jumper that made it 83-62 with 5:32 left. Elon got no closer than 17 points the rest of the night, with Duke getting three straight 3s from Dawkins, Smith and Ryan Kelly to make the score look a lot more lopsided than the game actually was.

Duke has now won 21 straight games dating back to last season's run to the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA tournament titles, and 29 of 30 overall.

Jack Isenbarger scored 21 points to lead Elon.

[Associated Press; By AARON BEARD]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.