In a game that featured five Blue Devil freshmen on the court at the same time, it was sophomore DeMarcus Nelson who brought the house down with his high-flying acrobatics and improved scoring ability against N.C. Central.
With 15:32 remaining in the second half, Nelson slashed down the right side of the lane and dunked a perfectly-executed, two-handed alley-oop from senior Sean Dockery, bringing the crowd to a roar. The play emphatically ended an 18-2 Blue Devil run to start the period and widened the Duke lead to 63-29. Duke would roll from there on to a 102-42 victory at Cameron Indoor Thursday night in its final exhibition game before beginning the season Nov. 14 against Boston University.
"He has confidence right now, and I'm excited about the way he's playing," Dockery said of Nelson. "He's a great player and you'll see that through the whole year."
The spurt came after a disappointing first half, in which the heavily overmatched Division II Eagles outscored the preseason No. 1 Blue Devils, 8-2, over the last 1:42 of the period. N.C. Central also had twice as many offensive rebounds as Duke over the first 20 minutes.
Nelson, who averaged just 6.2 points per game last season, ended the night with a team-high 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting from both the field and the free-throw line. The sophomore has worked hard to improve his shot since last season, when as a freshman he hit only 40 percent of his shots from the field and 53.2 percent from the line.
"I think that he's stronger in his head," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He understands who he is, and he has a mental toughness right now. He's just a much more mature basketball player, and I thought he played really well."
Nelson was not the only underclassman to dazzle the crowd against N.C. Central, as seniors J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams each played fewer than 23 minutes.
Point guard Greg Paulus, who struggled in the first half of Duke's preseason opener against Concordia Nov. 3, showed great poise and leadership when he stepped on the floor Thursday.
At the 14:35 mark of the first half, less than a minute after entering the game, Paulus drove to the baseline and dished a quick pass to Redick for a three. On the team's next possession the freshman threaded a bounce pass down the right side of the lane to Williams for an easy layup. Paulus ended the night with five assists and zero turnovers.
"The best stat for Greg is he had no turnovers," Krzyzewski said. "There has not been a time we've gone out on the court this year in practice or in a game where he hasn't had a number of turnovers."
Less than 30 seconds after Paulus' pass to Williams, fellow freshman Josh McRoberts wowed the Cameron Crazies with an alley-oop from senior Lee Melchionni off an inbound play. McRoberts broke down the right side of the court as Melchionni deftly lobbed a perfect pass for the two-handed slam.
Near the end of the second half, Duke had all five of its scholarship freshmen on the floor at the same time.
In the short period that the class of 2009 ruled the court, the Blue Devils outscored N.C. Central, 5-2.
"We felt like they played pretty good tonight," Nelson said of the freshmen. "They are definitely progressing. But, just like any freshmen, it's going to take time for them to play at the Duke level."
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