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Ingram scores 23, No. 7 Duke beats Buffalo 82-59

Brandon Ingram

Brandon Ingram

AP

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) Freshman Brandon Ingram scored 23 points and No. 7 Duke pulled away to beat Buffalo 82-59 on Saturday night.

Grayson Allen finished with 22 points and a career-best 11 rebounds, and Amile Jefferson had 13 points for the Blue Devils (8-1).

They won their sixth straight despite some offensive struggles: Duke never trailed but shot a season-worst 40.7 percent and matched a season low with five 3-pointers.

CJ Massinburg had 17 points and Lamonte Bearden added 10 for Buffalo (4-4), which shot just 33 percent.

After some early shooting struggles, Duke scored 11 straight points midway through the second half to build its first 20-point lead.

Jarryn Skeete pulled the Bulls to 41-32 with a 3-pointer with 15 minutes left. Jefferson countered with a layup, Ingram hit a corner 3 and the Blue Devils jumped into a 1-3-1 defense that forced consecutive turnovers that led to five easy points. Jefferson then capped the burst with a free throw that made it 52-32 with 12:25 to play.

After Buffalo cut it to 12, Matt Jones answered with a 3-pointer - just Duke’s third to that point - to make it 62-47 with 7 minutes left.

The Blue Devils might have been in big trouble in this one if not for Ingram - who was 8 of 15 in his second straight 20-point performance. He had a season-best 24 points last time out, in a 20-point win over Indiana three nights earlier.

It would have been tough for the Blue Devils as a whole to play much better than they did in that one.

But for a while, it seemed like a pretty drastic regression.

Players not named Ingram combined to miss 16 straight shots over a 15-minute stretch, and Duke had just two assists on its 10 baskets in the first half.

That Duke led by 10 points at halftime was mainly due to Ingram - who had 15 points at the break - and 13-of-17 free throw shooting.

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TIP-INS

Buffalo: The Bulls, who visit No. 5 Iowa State on Monday night, are the first Mid-American Conference team to play consecutive games against Top 10 opponents since Eastern Michigan in 2012.

Duke: Seven-foot center Marshall Plumlee finished with a career-high four assists. He entered with a team-best 17 blocks and shared the team lead for the season with 10 steals.

UP NEXT

Buffalo visits No. 5 Iowa State on Monday night.

Duke hosts Georgia Southern on Dec. 15.

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Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joedy-mccreary

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AP college basketball site: http://collegebasketball.ap.org