Singler leads Duke past Rhode Island

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke watched as Jimmy Baron turned much of the second half into his personal shoot-around. Finally, the Blue Devils put perhaps their best player in his face — barely in time to extend their long home-court winning streak.

Kyle Singler made two free throws with 19.4 seconds left and stopped Rhode Island's top scorer down the stretch to lead No. 8 Duke past the Rams 82-79 Sunday.

Jon Scheyer scored 23 points and was 13 of 13 from the free-throw line, and Singler finished with 21 points for the Blue Devils (3-0). They fell behind by 12 points early and trailed most of the way before scoring on their final seven possessions at Cameron Indoor Stadium to rally for their NCAA-best 62nd consecutive nonconference home victory.

"It was one of those February games in November," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "The last five minutes, I thought we did everything right. ... And they didn't do anything wrong. They just missed a couple of shots."

Singler, a sophomore forward from Medford, Ore., twice made two free throws in the final minute to put the Blue Devils ahead by a point. He knocked down two for an 80-79 Duke lead before Rhode Island (1-1) called timeout with 10.6 seconds left.

"We wanted to get it to Jimmy," Rams coach Jim Baron said, referring to his son.

The Rams worked the ball to Baron, who scored 21 of his 24 points in the second half. With Singler guarding him tightly, Baron's fallaway jumper glanced off the rim, clipped a Rhode Island player and went out of bounds with 4.9 seconds left.

Other Top 10 games

At No. 6 Michigan St. 100, Idaho 62

Chris Allen scored a career-high 21 points and Raymar Morgan also had 21, helping the Spartans (1-0) rout the Vandals (1-1).

Mac Hopson, a transfer from Washington State, led Idaho with 13 points on 6-for-12 shooting and had five assists.

At No. 9 Notre Dame 94,

South Carolina-Upstate 58

Luke Harangody collected 30 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Irish (1-0) past the Spartans (0-2).

Luke Zeller added a career-high 18 points for Notre Dame.

Notes

• No. 24 Kansas, the defending NCAA champion, opened its season with a 71-56 victory over visiting Missouri-Kansas City.

• Josh Akognon, an ex-Washington State player, scored 41 points to lead Cal State Fullerton to a 90-76 victory over Hawaii at the Verizon Wireless Tip-Off Classic in Honolulu. He was 12 of 29 from the field.