Perfect 10: Duke dumps Valpo, improves to 10-0

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Mike Krzyzewski had little reason to complain about top-ranked Duke's offense. The Blue Devils' defense was another matter.

J.J. Redick scored 30 points and Greg Paulus set a school freshman record with 15 assists to lead the Blue Devils past Valparaiso 104-77 on Sunday night, giving Duke a 10-0 start for the fifth time in six seasons.

Shelden Williams added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who shot 58 percent and cracked the 100-point mark for the first time this season. But Krzyzewski sounded irritated about his team's subpar defensive performance in the first half.

"I thought we came more to score the ball tonight than to defend it," Krzyzewski said. "I'd like to do both.

"We played well, don't get me wrong. We've just got to get better defensively," he said.

The Blue Devils got off to a fast start and jumped to a double-digit lead in the first four minutes against the Crusaders (4-3), who tried to hang around but never seriously threatened.

There was plenty for the Blue Devils to feel good about.

Redick displayed his usual all-America form and got plenty of help from Williams and Lee Melchionni (18 points). In addition, Paulus broke the freshman record of 13 assists shared by Bobby Hurley, Jason Williams and Chris Duhon.

He came within an assist of tying the school record owned by Hurley, who left Duke as the nation's career assists leader.

The Blue Devils were coming off a 97-66 victory over then-No. 2 Texas, a victory sparked by Redick's career-high 41 points and a dominating second half on both ends of the floor. Redick and the Blue Devils picked up where they left off offensively, hitting their first seven shots and playing the first 10 minutes at nearly an 80-point-per-half pace.

The problem, however, was that Valparaiso shot 50 percent in the first half, with Dan Oppland scoring 18 of his 25 points. In addition, Valparaiso had a 25-15 rebounding advantage in the half to stay within nine points.

That led to what Redick described as "an intense locker room" with Krzyzewski during the break.

"He told us the truth; we didn't play strong in the first half," Redick said. "We didn't play well defensively and we deserved to hear about it."

Despite all that, Duke's offensive firepower -- which included the impressive deluge in the opening minutes -- kept Valparaiso staring at 15- and 20-point deficits throughout the second half. Redick -- who hit nine 3s against the Longhorns -- went 9-for-15 overall and 5-for-9 from behind the arc.

"We tried a box-and-one, we tried three different people in man-to-man and we tried some zone and nothing [worked]," Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said. "He's an outstanding shooter. Even when we thought we had him covered, he made shots."

Duke got off to a fast start with Redick knocking down a 3 on the team's first possession, the first of seven straight shots to open the game. Redick nailed a second 3 in the run while Josh McRoberts made two layups off feeds from Paulus.

Paulus had five assists in that 7-for-7 stretch, which ended when he flipped a one-handed pass to Martynas Pocius for a transition layup and a 20-10 lead with 16:01 left.

But Duke's defense appeared to have Krzyzewski fuming.

On one play, Ali Berdiel drove right by McRoberts along the baseline and met no helpside defense on his way to the basket. After Berdiel's reverse layup dropped through to make it 39-27, Krzyzewski stood motionless and stared silently in McRoberts' direction.

A few minutes later, Shawn Huff got a wide open 3-point look in front of the Duke bench. The coach motioned for someone to pick up Huff and, though the shot missed, Krzyzewski immediately called a timeout and yelled at Pocius "Get over here!" for an animated sideline discussion.

Valparaiso got a jumper from Huff at the halftime horn to cut the deficit to 53-44, but that was as close as the Crusaders would get. Duke opened the second half with a 15-4 run, ending with a 3 from Redick and six straight points from Williams to make it 68-48 with 15:07 to play.