Tuesday night, the latest team to test the Blue Devils at home was Illinois-Chicago. They should have suspected they were in for a long night when the security guard who let them into the visiting team door closed it behind them, locked it, and then walked away with a cackle only heard in horror movies. Still, they took the floor, took their licks, and went out with their head held high.

Watching the first 10 minutes of the game, you wouldn't have expected the final score to be as lopsided as it was. The Flames were able to run with Duke up and down the floor, preventing the Blue Devils from breaking out on more than one transition basket in the first half. Duke struggled to get the ball inside enough to Shelden Williams, and when they did, he was either fouled before the shot or had to pass it back out. UIC was shooting the ball well, and Duke was able to answer with some 3 point shots, but never enough to pull away. Most trips down the court, Duke was only able to manage one shot and a lack of rebounding was hurting them on the scoreboard.

All that changed with a little less than 9 minutes remaining in the half. At that point, Daniel Ewing stole the ball and ran down the court, passing the ball up in the air to himself before dunking it down. Normally you would count on this to start one of the patented Duke runs. Down by six before that basket, they needed a spark to help them get over whatever was plaguing them in the first few minutes. The run came, but not how you would expect. While causing UIC to turn the ball over 5 times in the next three minutes, Duke gave it back three times. They were only able to string 9 points together before the Flames' Jovan Stefanov ended the run with a great inside basket and hit the foul shot to keep the game tied at 25.

By far, the biggest lapse of the first half for the UIC defense happened with just over 4 minutes remaining. Lee Melchionni hit two three point basket within one minute and both times, the UIC defense backed off him. Yes, Melchionni is a forward, and normally forwards don't shoot three pointers. However, any scout for UIC would have told them that last year he shot 36%, which while not the tops on the team, was still pretty good. This season, so far, he had been better, shooting 36.8% on 7-19 shooting. Why then would the UIC players consistently back off of Melchionni as he caught the ball beyond the 3 point arc and assume he would miss? All combined, it served to give Duke a seven point lead at the half.

From my standpoint, the first half MVP was Ewing. He may not have led the team in scoring. He may have been only 3 for 9 from the floor. However, he was the catalyst for everything that Duke did in the final ten minutes of the half. Over the course of the game, Ewing added 5 steals to an already gaudy 18 from the first six games. He also tacked on 5 assists to go with a number of lane driving baskets which helped to spark the offense.

UIC's one bright spot from the first half was Stefanov who scored 15 of their 31 points. As their only offense, he helped to keep the game close. This could be the main reason why in the second half, they lost touch with the Duke team. Stefanov didn't score for the rest of the game and Cedrick Banks, the all-time leading scorer at UIC, wasn't able to even match Stefanov's 15 points from the first half, finishing with 12 points, 7 of which were scored in the first 6 minutes of the game.

Duke just poured it on during the second half, and Williams emerged as the star of the second half. It almost seemed that Ewing tagged him at half time and said, "You are IT!" Williams began the second half with an 8-0 run of his own helping Duke to a 21-0 run over seven minutes spanning the first and second half. UIC was finally able to get on the board with an inside shot by Elliott Poole but by that point, Duke was up for good.

UIC did a nice job of keeping the intensity level up throughout the game despite the score, but it was just too much to overcome. Even though they were overmatched in this game, they still have what it takes to make a run in the Horizon league and take on Wisconsin-Milwaukee for the conference title.

On Duke's side, they had a number of bright spots in the game. Once again, their three point shooting was right on throughout and they finished 9-23 from beyond the arc. They were able to more consistently take the ball inside to Williams and Ewing is starting to resemble a real point guard, creating offense both with the pass and on his own, driving the basket. They had a nice solid contribution from Freshman DeMarcus Nelson who played 22 minutes and scored 9. Nelson was the all-time leading scorer in high school in the state of California, so he can only improve what is already a great shooting team. Last, their pressure defense was enough to wear down a UIC team that normally holds onto the ball very well. They caused 23 turnovers, almost double what UIC was averaging going into the game. The defense also set a Duke record for blocked shots in a game with 18, seven of them by Williams. Overall, a very solid performance by the Blue Devils. They will need to improve on the way they begin games because they will not be able to spot ACC opponents a good lead like they have in their last two games against Toledo and UIC. Other than that, very solid overall.

It may not be as flashy as it once was, but it got the job done. And it continued what is now a common theme in life: Duke does not lose against non-conference foes at home.