Courtesy: Duke Photography

DURHAM, N.C. - DeMarcus Nelson scored a game-high 19 points as 11th-ranked Duke defeated Indiana, 54-51, in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.  The Blue Devils improve to a perfect 8-0 in ACC-Big Ten Challenge games.

With the win, Duke pushes its overall record to 6-1 while the Hoosiers fall to 3-2.

Indiana had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but Errek Suhr’s three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short.

Duke jumped out to leads of 6-0 and 9-2 early in the contest, and led by 15 points at 30-15 on a pair of foul shots by Greg Paulus at the 3:23 mark of the opening half.  Nelson guided the Blue Devils with 13 points in the first game’s 11 minutes.

After trailing 33-21 at intermission, Indiana outscored the Blue Devils 19-7 to begin the second half and knotted the game at 40-40 on Earl Calloway’s jumper with 12:12 left in the game.  Duke responded with five straight points from Nelson and his three-pointer at the 10:14 mark made the score 45-40. 

After the Blue Devils pushed the lead to seven points with five minutes left, Indiana’s Armon Bassett scored five consecutive points and his layup with 2:05 remaining closed the gap to 53-51.  A free throw by Gerald Henderson with 30 seconds on the clock gave Duke a three-point cushion and accounted for the final margin as Indiana came up empty on its final two three-point attempts.

Nelson buried six-of-10 field goals including a three-for-six three-point performance.  Jon Scheyer added 10 points, four assists and three steals.  David McClure was a spark off the Duke bench with six points, three rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals in 24 minutes.  Duke was limited to just 22.2 percent (4-of-18) field goal shooting in the second half.

Bassett paced the Hoosiers with 16 points.

Duke remains at home this weekend and will host 18th-ranked Georgetown on Saturday at 7 p.m. (ESPN2).