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GREENSBORO — Unafraid. Unintimidated. Undermanned.

This was 15th-seeded Binghamton, in just its eighth season as a full-fledged Division I program, playing in its first NCAA tournament game. The Bearcats took on second-seeded Duke at the Greensboro Coliseum, a short ride from the Blue Devils' cozy Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But all the effort and energy the upstate New Yorkers put forth might have just made a good Duke team even better heading into the second round of the East Regional.

Point guard Jon Scheyer scored 15 points to lead six Blue Devils in double figures as Duke defeated Binghamton 86-62 before 20,001 fans late Thursday night at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The Blue Devils (29-6) face seventh-seeded Texas (23-11) in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday. Approximate start time is 8:15 p.m.

"Overall, I'm really pleased with our performance," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "No one got hurt, and it's off to Saturday."

It wasn't easy early. Binghamton scored first, and the Blue Devils led just 10-7 after a frantic first five minutes.

"There were large portions of that first half where they were playing harder than we were," Krzyzewski said. "That's what I meant about taking the fight to us. It's not that we weren't playing hard. But they were playing harder."

D.J. Rivera scored 20 points to lead Binghamton (23-9), which simply couldn't match Duke's manpower. Tiki Mayben scored 13 and Reggie Fuller had 12.

Duke relied on Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson and Scheyer, MVP last week at the ACC tournament, where the big three scored 80.2 percent of the Blue Devils' points in three victories in Atlanta. But on this night, the Blue Devils added balance to their offense.

Sixth-man Nolan Smith — the starting point guard before a lineup shake-up 13 games ago — scored eight points in the first half. So did freshman two-guard Elliot Williams, who cracked the starting lineup 10 games ago. Duke is 9-1 since then.

Smith finished with 13 points, and Williams had 11.

Even Lance Thomas, the team's 6-foot-8 interior defensive specialist, scored five points in the first half and finished with 14 against the smaller Bearcats and their four-guard lineup.

"The key guy for us was Lance," Krzyzewski said. "I thought Lance played one of his best games."

Henderson, meanwhile, shot 7-for-7 from the free-throw line and scored 13 points. Singler finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Duke's balance made the difference against Binghamton's aggressive full-court pressure defense. Scheyer's nine points led six scorers with at least five points in the first half as the Blue Devils led 45-34.

The balance was back after halftime, when Duke outscored the Bearcats 17-2 in the opening five minutes to stretch the lead to 26 points.

"Binghamton played their hearts out against us," Krzyzewski said. "So they continued to put us in a position where we had to make an extra pass. I thought we haven't been put in that position very much. But our guys did that, and I think as a result (points were) evenly distributed."

Binghamton's aggressiveness on defense forced 15 turnovers. But the Bearcats were whistled for 21 fouls, and Duke made them pay.

Led by Henderson, Duke shot 21-for-25 from the foul line. And Binghamton? The little Bearcats were 1-for-5.

The frustration showed. Trailing 14-7 with 12:18 left in the first half, Kevin Broadus called his first timeout.

"Hey!" the Binghamton coach shouted as his players joined the huddle, "RUN OFFENSE! OK?"

Coming out of the timeout, the Bearcats Malik Alvin turned over the ball on a drive to the basket, Duke's Henderson drew a foul and hit both free throws to push the lead to 16-7.

"We gave it our best shot," Broadus said. "At the end of the day, Duke was the better team. They wore us down, and there was nothing we could do."

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

BINGHAMTON (23-9)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Rivera 34 9-14 1-1 2-5 1 4 20

Fuller 28 6-7 0-1 1-4 0 4 12

Alvin 29 3-8 0-1 0-1 1 2 6

Mayben 39 5-13 0-2 1-5 7 3 13

Lukusa 31 1-6 0-0 1-2 0 3 3

Camara 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Herbert 13 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 6

Fine 7 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Mullins 1 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2

Sutton 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Montgomery 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 2 0

Totals 200 27-51 1-5 6-20 9 21 62

Percentages: FG .529, FT .200.

Three-point goals: 7-15, .467 (Mayben 3-8, Herbert 2-2, Lukusa 1-2, Rivera 1-3).

Team rebounds: 2.

Blocks: 4 (Rivera, Mayben, Fuller, Herbert).

Turnovers: 18 (Mayben 6, Alvin 5, Rivera 3, Lukusa, Fuller, Camara, Herbert).

Steals: 9 (Lukusa 3, Rivera 2, Fuller 2, Herbert, Mayben).

Technical foul: Coach Broadus.

DUKE (29-6)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Singler 28 4-11 0-0 3-9 1 3 10

Thomas 23 5-5 4-6 3-5 1 2 14

Henderson 33 3-9 7-7 1-6 3 0 13

Williams 25 5-9 0-1 1-4 4 4 11

Scheyer 29 3-9 6-6 2-3 4 2 15

Smith 21 4-6 4-5 1-2 3 1 13

Paulus 13 2-4 0-0 1-1 3 1 5

Pocius 4 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 0 3

Czyz 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

McClure 16 1-3 0-0 2-3 2 1 2

Plumlee 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Zoubek 4 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Totals 200 28-57 21-25 17-38 21 14 86

Percentages: FG .491, FT .840.

Three-point goals: 9-20, .450 (Scheyer 3-7, Singler 2-3, Pocius 1-1, Paulus 1-1, Smith 1-2, Williams 1-3, Henderson 0-3).

Team rebounds: 3.

Blocks: 3 (Henderson, Smith, Singler).

Turnovers: 15 (Singler 5, Henderson 3, Smith 2, Pocius, Plumlee, Scheyer, McClure, Paulus).

Steals: 6 (McClure 2, Plumlee, Smith, Henderson, Scheyer).

Binghamton 34 28 -- 62

Duke 45 41 -- 86

A—20,001. Officials—Tony Greene, John Hughes, Brett Wegenke.