DURHAM — It'd been almost three years since a Duke player scored 30 points in a game.
Sunday night, two of them did.
Gerald Henderson scored 35 points and Jon Scheyer had 30 — both career highs — to lead No. 9 Duke to a 101-91 victory over No. 8 Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday night.
Kyle Singler and freshman guard Elliot Williams chipped in 11 points apiece for Duke (22-5, 8-4 ACC), which moved into a second-place tie with Florida State in the ACC standings.
"So many amazing performances tonight," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That was as good a game as there's been in the ACC this year — offensively, at least. &ellipses; G and Jon had signature games. And Elliot gave us a real verve, right from the start."
Krzyzewski wasn't kidding about that signature game stuff. The last time two Duke players scored 30 points in the same game was Jan. 9, 1980, at Clemson when Greensboro's Gene Banks had 31 and Mike Gminski had 30.
Sunday night, Duke needed all those points to stop a Wake Forest team that hit 61 percent of its shots and still lost.
Jeff Teague scored 28 points and James Johnson finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Demon Deacons (20-5, 7-5), who lost the lead for good during a horrendous stretch of the first half when Duke went on a 28-4 scoring run.
At one point during that critical span, Henderson went on a personal run, outscoring Wake 14-2 by himself on two jump shots, four free throws and three consecutive acrobatic dunks off steals.
"There is nobody in the country who can attack the rim like Gerald can," Scheyer said. "In the open court or the halfcourt, he is someone who can create his own shot or shots for other people."
Williams had four of Duke's 10 steals — all in the first half — and Wake Forest committed 16 of its 20 turnovers before halftime.
"We had too many turnovers in the first half," Wake coach Dino Gaudio said. "And it wasn't just that, but we had ... too many turnovers for touchdowns, where we couldn't guard them.
"Early it wasn't our offense that was the problem. It was our turnovers," Gaudio said, pausing for effect. "It was all our turnovers."
Wake Forest trailed by as many as 22 points in the first half but cut it to 51-40 at halftime. Johnson scored 20 of his points in the second half, and the Deacs climbed back into the game and cut it to 80-78 on Al-Farouq Aminu's alley-oop dunk with 7:40 left.
Scheyer then made what Krzyzewski called the play of the game. Wake guard Ish Smith jumped at Scheyer's pump fake, and the Duke junior bumped Smith and threw the ball at the basket from behind the 3-point arc.
Scheyer hit all three ensuing free throws, and Wake never got any closer.
"When Jon was smart enough to get fouled on a 3-pointer, that was huge," Krzyzewski said. "We never lost the lead. That gave us a five-point lead. You lose the lead in a game like this, and you might lose the whole thing."
Duke put the game away when first Henderson then Scheyer hit deep 3-pointers from the top of the key on back-to-back possessions, each time with the shot clock winding down.
That pushed the lead to 96-84 with 2:11 left, and Duke scored the rest of its points from the foul line.
"I was proud of our kids," Gaudio said. "I thought they played hard and not once did they dip their heads during the game or in timeouts. We just have to turn the page and move on to the next one."
Notes: The last Duke player to score 30 points was J.J. Redick, who had 30 against Florida State on March 1, 2006. ... The teams split the season series. Wake won 70-68 at the buzzer last month at the Joel Coliseum. ... Wake Forest came in 4-0 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 this season. ... Last time out, Wake Forest earned the 1,400th victory in school history. Now in its 103rd season, the program is 1,400-1,058 all time. ... In its 20 victories this season, Wake Forest has averaged 11.75 shots from 3-point range (80-for-235). In their five losses, the Demon Deacons average 16.25 long-range attempts (24-for-74). &ellipses; The Deacs are 18-2 when they attempt 15 or fewer 3-pointers and 2-3 when they take 16 or more.
Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com
WAKE FOREST (20-5, 7-5)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Aminu 24 2-3 3-4 2-6 0 2 7
Johnson 35 11-17 3-4 4-11 2 3 26
McFarland 16 2-2 2-2 1-2 1 4 6
Teague 38 10-16 6-6 0-2 1 4 28
Williams 38 4-8 0-0 2-5 0 4 10
Clark 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hale 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Smith 34 6-10 0-0 0-2 5 4 12
Weaver 8 1-2 0-0 1-2 0 0 2
Woods 2 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Totals 200 36-59 14-16 12-34 9 22 91
Percentages: FG .610, FT .875.
3-point goals: 5-9, .556 (Teague 2-2, Williams 2-3, Johnson 1-4).
Team rebounds: 2.
Blocked shots: 2 (Johnson, McFarland).
Turnovers: 20 (Smith 5, McFarland 4, Aminu 4, Johnson 4, Teague 2, Weaver).
Steals: 1 (Williams).
DUKE (22-5, 8-4)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Singler 36 5-14 0-0 3-6 2 1 11
Henderson 31 11-15 12-14 0-1 2 2 35
Thomas 33 3-5 1-2 4-6 1 3 7
Williams 32 5-8 1-3 0-1 1 4 11
Scheyer 37 8-16 9-11 4-4 3 2 30
Smith 9 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 5 3
Paulus 9 0-0 4-6 0-0 1 1 4
McClure 10 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 0 0
Plumlee 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 200 33-61 27-36 11-23 11 18 101
Percentages: FG .541, FT .750.
3-point goals: 8-23, .348 (Scheyer 5-10, Smith 1-2, Henderson 1-4, Singler 1-6, Williams 0-1).
Team rebounds: 3.
Blocked shots: 2 (Singler, Thomas).
Turnovers: 6 (Henderson 3, Smith, Williams, Scheyer).
Steals: 10 (Williams 4, Singler 2, Scheyer 2, Henderson, Thomas).
Wake Forest 40 51 — 91
Duke 51 50 — 101
Officials—Roger Ayers, Bernard Clinton, Doug Sirmons. A—9,314.
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