The five players who started for Duke Wednesday were not Duke's typical starters. Instead, head coach
Mike Krzyzewski trotted out five reserves and kept his typical starting five on the bench for the game's opening minutes.
And the No. 6 Blue Devils barely missed a beat.
Not surprisingly, a deep bench paced the Blue Devils to a 99-56 win over UNC-Asheville in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Kyle Singler and Gerald Henderson, who both scored 14 points, led six Duke players in double figures as the Blue Devils nearly hit the 100-point mark for the first time all season.
Still, Wednesday's win was more of a team effort than any of Duke's other victories, as 11 players racked up double-digit minutes.
"We felt like we needed to use the game to look at a lot of players," Krzyzewski said. "The message is that we have confidence in our bench."
Seniors Dave McClure and Greg Paulus, junior Martynas Pocius and freshmen Miles Plumlee and Elliot Williams started the game for Duke. Krzyzewski regularly made substitutions, looking to find a lineup that worked. Paulus was generally on the court with the less dominant players, while Nolan Smith was paired with Jon Scheyer and Henderson most often.
In its first game since losing to Michigan 11 days ago, Duke struggled early, briefly losing its lead over the Bulldogs twice. But after back-to-back 3-pointers from Singler and a dunk from Henderson six minutes into the first half, Duke finally took advantage of the contest.
The first half, however, was much messier than the second. Duke (9-1) committed just three turnovers after halftime, compared to its 12 in the first half, and in the last 20 minutes, Scheyer and Henderson combined to go 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
Henderson, in particular, impressed Krzyzewski. In the junior's first minute off the bench, he slammed home an alley-oop from Smith and never looked back from his high-flying start.
"He can be a 3-point shooter, but he should be a multidimensional scorer," Krzyewski said of Henderson. "It should just come about as the offensive exchange comes out. I thought he was good at getting into the paint."
But perhaps the most surprising player tonight was Williams. The freshman guard broke away from his average of 2.6 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, earning 6 points and tying Singler's team-high eight rebounds.
The Blue Devils might have needed an easy performance against UNC-Asheville (4-6), especially with another matchup with a top-10 team looming. Duke travels to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. to take on No. 7 Xavier Saturday at 2 p.m.
"Xavier will be the best team we've played thus far," Krzyzewski said. "They play outstanding D, physical D. It's a big game for us. They're deep. They don't have one guy that you stop. They just have a good team."
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