DURHAM, N.C. - The night started with a rude greeting from the Cameron Crazies as the team bus arrived outside Cameron Indoor Stadium, and it never got better.
Led by Greg Paulus' 18 points, the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils topped No. 20 Wisconsin 82-58 Tuesday night in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
The Blue Devils were the only ones with more intensity than the Crazies as Duke stopped UW sophomore guard Trevon Hughes early and often while five Devils reached double-figures on the offensive end. Hughes was held to 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting.
We wanted to make it hard for him the whole time,"" Duke sophomore guard Jon Scheyer said. ""We wanted to make him work for everything. He's been doing really well early in the season, but he hasn't had to work for a whole lot.""
Hughes certainly had to work hard Tuesday night, as the Blue Devils brought full-court pressure.
""We made them play full-court, and nobody has made them do that this year,"" Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. ""That was a big advantage for us, not that we caused a lot of turnovers, but it just pushed their offense out a little bit more.""
It also pushed Hughes into taking some tough shots. The sophomore was only 1-for-8 in the first half.
""You know what? [It was Hughes'] first time leading the team into an environment like this,"" UW head coach Bo Ryan said. ""I'm not going to sit here and say I thought something like this could happen, but it was going to be a test.""
Ryan said on media day back in October that there would be ups and downs for Hughes. After five straight ups that led to an early 5-0 record, Tuesday was one of those downs. Still, Krzyzewski seemed to love UW's new point guard.
""Hughes is really good,"" Krzyzewski said. ""He's a strong guard and [Wisconsin] is going to be very good. It ended up being our kind of game tonight, but we're not that much better than them, if we are better than them.""
While none of the UW players were making that claim after the loss, it's hard to argue that Wisconsin did not have a sizable advantage in the front court.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, a dominating post game never materialized. While UW outscored Duke 32-26 in the paint, forward Brian Butch struggled as he scored 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting. The senior was also 0-for-4 from three, making him an astonishing 0-for-13 from beyond the arc this season.
""Brian had some nice looks early,"" Ryan said. ""This could have been one of those games for him. Brian had probably the most open looks in the first half. They just weren't going down for him.""
The Badgers now have five days off before hosting Wofford next Monday, and they are confident that even though they were blown out Tuesday, they will play better.
""We know we are capable of showing a better performance than what we did tonight,"" junior guard Joe Krabbenhoft said. ""But you can't take anything away from them. Duke played a hell of a game and we didn't execute the way we wanted to. And when you don't execute in Cameron Indoor against Duke, the score's going to be the way it was tonight. We just need to get better - plain and simple.""
