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DURHAM — The basketball season opened for Duke and UNCG on Friday night, and both teams got what they wanted out of a 34-point blowout.

In his first game as a full-time perimeter player, junior Kyle Singler scored 20 points in 38 long minutes to lead shorthanded No. 9 Duke to a 96-62 victory over the overmatched Spartans at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Jon Scheyer scored 18 points and 7-footer Brian Zoubek had 14 off the bench for the Blue Devils (1-0), who played with just eight scholarship players.

And UNCG's Ben Stywell scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds as the smaller Spartans played hard against the best team they'll face all season — even with an aggressive non-conference schedule that includes five more ACC opponents.

"It was fun. This is fun," UNCG coach Mike Dement said. "The final score is not fun, but it's fun to come out and experience all of this. Now we get to do it again at Virginia Tech and next week when we open up our place (the Greensboro Coliseum) with Clemson. It's not easy, but that doesn't change that it's fun. &ellipses; We played with (Duke), and I think we'll grow with that."

In the end, UNCG simply couldn't match Duke's size and skill at every position.

The 6-foot-5 Stywell and 6-6 Pete Brown started at the forwards in the Spartans' three-guard offense. The smallest player in Duke's lineup was Scheyer, a 6-5 point guard. Duke's other starting guard was the 6-8 Singler, who was a matchup nightmare for UNCG.

"That's the strength of our team you'll see throughout the whole year," Scheyer said. "Tonight, Andre Dawkins and I were the smallest guys by far, and we're big guards for the most part. That's definitely a strength for our team."

Duke finished with a 44-26 rebounding advantage. Big men Zoubek, Lance Thomas (12 points) and Miles Plumlee (10 points, nine rebounds) helped the Blue Devils outscore UNCG 46-28 in the paint, and 16-6 on second-chance points.

"The size factor was real hard," UNCG freshman point guard Kyle Randall said. "Rebounding hurt us a little bit. &ellipses; But we scheduled these tough teams for a reason. We scheduled them so we could make ourselves better and for our confidence. We know these are really strong teams and we won't see anything like them in conference. If we can hang with them, we can be really good in conference play."

Randall played 31 minutes in his first college game, finishing with nine points and four assists. Freshman forward Brian Cole had eight points off the bench.

Two key Duke players watched this one from the bench in street clothes. Starting guard Nolan Smith sat out the first game of a two-game suspension because he played in an unsanctioned summer league. And highly touted freshman forward Mason Plumlee, who had won a starting job, broke his left wrist in practice Wednesday.

Plumlee won't need surgery, but he's out indefinitely.

With those two out, Duke's other eight all played at least 13 minutes. Freshmen Andre Dawkins, a 6-4 guard, and Ryan Kelly, a 6-10 forward, both scored eight points apiece. And sophomore forward Olek Czyz started and scored six points in 24 minutes after playing 51 minutes all of last season.

"I'm going to play those guys so they get accustomed to playing that many minutes," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "There is no middle relief, there's no (Mariano) Rivera or any set-up guys. So (our players) have to be able to play like that."

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

UNCG
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Stywall 30 7-16 5-6 5-8 1 3 19
Brown 20 3-5 0-1 1-3 2 4 6
Randall 31 3-7 2-4 0-1 4 0 9
Evans 22 0-6 1-2 2-4 3 3 1
Koivisto 30 2-7 2-2 0-0 0 2 8
VanDussen 20 1-3 0-1 0-0 1 3 2
Smith 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Toney 14 2-4 0-2 1-1 1 1 5
Sellers 10 2-3 0-0 0-1 0 2 4
Cole 18 4-8 0-0 1-2 0 1 8
Jackson 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 200 24-60 10-18 13-26 12 20 62
Percentages: FG .400, FT .556.
3-point goals: 4-12, .333 (Koivisto 2-7, Randall 1-1, Toney 1-2, Evans 0-2).
Team rebounds: 6.
Blocked shots: 1 (Brown).
Turnovers: 14 (Randall 5, Sellers 3, Evans 2, Brown 2, Toney, Stywall).
Steals: 5 (VanDussen 2, Randall, Stywall, Sellers).

DUKE
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Czyz 24 3-3 0-0 3-6 3 3 6
MiPlumlee 24 4-10 2-4 5-9 0 2 10
Thomas 29 4-6 4-4 2-7 2 3 12
Singler 38 9-15 0-0 0-5 2 2 20
Scheyer 37 5-10 6-7 0-3 4 0 18
Dawkins 15 3-6 0-0 1-3 2 4 8
Kelly 13 3-5 1-2 1-3 1 1 8
Johnson 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Peters 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Zoubek 16 6-7 2-3 3-7 2 3 14
Totals 200 37-62 15-20 15-44 16 18 96
Percentages: FG .597, FT .750.
3-point goals: 7-18, .389 (Dawkins 2-4, Singler 2-5, Scheyer 2-7, Kelly 1-2).
Blocked shots: 8 (Mi.Plumlee 3, Singler 2, Dawkins, Kelly, Zoubek).
Turnovers: 13 (Thomas 5, Mi.Plumlee 3, Zoubek 2, Singler 2, Czyz).
Steals: 8 (Zoubek 2, Czyz 2, Mi.Plumlee, Singler, Thomas, Scheyer).

UNCG 27 35 — 62
Duke 48 48 — 96

A—9,314. Officials—Mike Wood, Dan Stryffeler, Jamie Luckie.