No. 9 Duke routs UNC Greensboro, 96-62

Kyle Singler scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half, and No. 9 Duke shrugged off the absence of two starters in a 96-62 rout of North Carolina-Greensboro on Friday night.

Singler, the ACC's preseason player of the year, finished 9 of 15 from the field, and Jon Scheyer added 18 points for the Blue Devils (1-0).

Duke shot 59.7 percent and used two huge first-half runs to extend its NCAA record home nonconference winning streak to 69. The ACC's preseason co-favorites with defending national champion North Carolina improved to 28-2 in openers under Mike Krzyzewski.

Ben Stywall had 19 points to lead UNC Greensboro (0-1), the preseason pick to finish last in its division in the Southern Conference.

The Blue Devils made this one look easy even without a pair of key players. Guard Nolan Smith was suspended for the first two games of the season for playing in unsanctioned summer league games, while 6-foot-10 freshman forward Mason Plumlee is out indefinitely with a broken left wrist.

That left Scheyer as the only true guard in the starting lineup. Duke's four other starters each stood at least 6-7 — or, one inch taller than the biggest Spartan starter, 6-6 Pete Brown.

Duke took the drama out of this one by halftime with a pair of overwhelming runs.

Singler and Scheyer each had seven points during the 23-6 spurt that gave the Blue Devils a comfortable lead, with Miles Plumlee's putback capping the burst and making it 23-8 with roughly 12 minutes before the break. Duke later used a 17-5 burst to go up 23 when Scheyer's free throw at the 1:58 mark doubled up the Spartans, 46-23.

Brian Zoubek, the Blue Devils' 7-1 center, scored 14 off the bench. Lance Thomas added 12.

UNC Greensboro fell to 0-23 against ranked teams while opening against one for the first time in 15 years. It was a tough way for the Spartans to begin a brutal schedule that includes half of the Atlantic Coast Conference's 12 teams — and four of them are coming to the Greensboro Coliseum, where this season's ACC tournament will be held.

Duke's on-the-court victory came a few hours after the Blue Devils lost a signing-period showdown to rival North Carolina. Harrison Barnes, widely considered the top prep prospect in the country, picked the Tar Heels over Duke and a handful of other prominent programs during an elaborate signing ceremony at his Iowa high school.

A few weeks earlier during his campus visit for an exhibition game, some of those clever Cameron Crazies attempted to woo Barnes by holding one sign depicting actor Harrison Ford next to another picturing two barns.