McRoberts leads No. 5 Duke over Temple

Josh McRoberts had a career-high 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead No. 5 Duke past Temple 73-55 on Tuesday night.

DeMarcus Nelson scored 14 points and had a career-best 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils (13-1), who extended the nation's longest nonconference home winning streak to 51 games. Duke won for the seventh straight time in the series with Temple (6-6) and has won nine consecutive games overall.

The 6-foot-10 McRoberts finished with an all-around strong performance, tallying four blocks and four assists in 32 minutes. The Blue Devils got solid contributions from reserves David McClure (career-high 12 rebounds) and 7-foot freshman Brian Zoubek, who scored eight first-half points that helped Duke push ahead for good.

Freshman Jon Scheyer led the defensive effort on Temple's Dionte Christmas, who came in as the Atlantic 10's leading scorer at 20.8 points per game. Christmas finished with 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting.

Duke fell behind by 12 points early, but held the Owls to 34 percent shooting for the game. The Blue Devils finished with a 49-28 rebounding advantage.

Temple didn't show any signs of nerves in taking a 16-4 lead in the first 4 1/2 minutes. But things changed quickly once 7-footer Sergio Olmos _ Temple's only player taller than 6-6 in the regular rotation _ picked up his third foul midway through the first half with the Owls leading 24-18.

That opened the door for Zoubek, who scored against the 6-5 Christmas on a switch in the paint after an offensive rebound and followed with another inside basket off a feed from Nelson that gave Duke its first lead, 25-24 with 5:49 left in the half. Once Duke got those easy baskets inside, the Blue Devils had the momentum that had abandoned the Owls.

Greg Paulus closed the half with a tough hanging layup and a 3-pointer _ Duke's only 3 in eight attempts for the half _ that made it 35-28 at the break. The Blue Devils held Temple to 33 percent shooting in the half.

The Owls got no closer than five points in the early minutes of the second half, with Duke maintaining control of the game the rest of the way. The Blue Devils' best stretch came midway through the second half, starting when Paulus threw a no-look, behind-the-head pass to a trailing Nelson for a transition dunk.

Then, after hitting a 3-pointer that bounced off the rim before dropping through, McRoberts matched Paulus with a behind-the-back bounce pass to a cutting Nelson for a layup and a 56-41 lead with 9:05 left.

Duke led by as many as 20 points late.