DURHAM – Cooper Flagg picked up two fouls in the first seven minutes. Duke missed its first six 3-pointers, and 10 of its first 11. There was rust for a Blue Devils team that hadn’t played in 10 days.

It still added up to a comfortable 88-65 win against Virginia Tech on Tuesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The fourth-ranked Blue Devils (11-2, 3-0 ACC) will take a seven-game winning streak into 2025. They’ve won their last two games by 26 and 23 points over ACC foes — the former being a nice road win, the latter being something of a muscle flex to put away a scuffling VT team.

Most impressive might be that the performances were that similar in spite of the 10 days between Duke’s game at Georgia Tech and its Tuesday game against the Hokies (5-8, 0-2).

“We had two, three good days where we were just able to lock in on us and get better, have some of those summer practices like I’ve mentioned before,” junior guard Tyrese Proctor said. “Obviously had a couple of days to prep for Virginia Tech.

“It was good to just get playing again, close doors and get back to our habits and stuff like that.”

When Duke made its run in the second half, there was some separation — but not much, because when the Blue Devils were scoring on one end, they were being scored on at the other end.

Duke was scoring 1.57 points per possession to start the second half. But its lead only went from the 10-point halftime cushion to 59-44 because VT scored on eight of nine possessions during one stretch.

Toward the end of that stretch and with about 11 minutes left in the game, Jon Scheyer called a timeout to reset Duke’s defense.

Proctor’s third dunk of the game came with a little more than four minutes left, making it a 77-50 score.

“I thought we did a great job of consistently trying to wear them down,” Scheyer said. “Thought we had some good sequences of going defense to offense that helped us.

“We have a lot to improve on, a lot to do. But it’s great to take this first step forward, coming back from break.”

Flagg picking up those two early fouls didn’t deter him from having another tour de force performance, by the way.

The freshman star scored 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting. He was 2-for-4 on 3s, this being the fourth game of the season he’s hit multiple 3s, and he filled up the rest of the stat sheet with six assists, four steals, three rebounds and a block — and only committed one turnover.

Flagg scored Duke’s first eight points but went to the bench for 4½ minutes after picking up that second foul.

He left little doubt about whose fault that was.

“I mean, it’s nobody’s fault but my own. They were two completely stupid fouls to start the game, which there was no need for,” Flagg said. “For me, it’s another learning experience of, ‘You get it going, you have two stupid fouls and put yourself on the bench.’

“It’s a learning curve, something I’m going to grow from. Just gotta get better.”

And he was — Flagg played 30 minutes, was plus-30, and finished the game with two fouls.

“You know, I was pissed at him for getting that second foul, to be honest,” Scheyer said. “But even with two, I thought he did a really good job of still playing hard but not picking up that foul.”

Kon Knueppel and Proctor scored 13 apiece for the Blue Devils, with Proctor dishing out five assists and having zero turnovers. Sion James was the other starter in double figures, scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for his first double-double as a Blue Devil.

Isaiah Evans missed his first three 3s and made his last four, accounting for all 12 of his points, and Mason Gillis added 10 points off the bench in what turned into a balanced scoring night (once you get past Flagg’s 24-point game).

Duke was 15-for-15 at the free-throw line, marking the fifth time in program history the Blue Devils have taken at least 10 free throws and missed none. Incredibly, three of those games have come against VT — including the last time, when the Blue Devils were 10-for-10 on Dec. 6, 2019.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a huge emphasis, it’s just something that we’ve made important from Day One,” Flagg said of free-throw shooting.

TIP-INS: Evans also had two assists, which is a season-high. He had four in Duke’s first 12 games. … Tobi Lawal led VT with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting. The junior forward who transferred in from VCU scored 11 of VT’s first 13 points in the second half. … Freshman center Khaman Maluach didn’t have the same offensive impact he’s had in the past few games (two points), but he had three blocks — tying a season high. The last game he had three blocks was the Kentucky loss. … After Duke’s 1-for-11 start shooting 3s, the Blue Devils were 10-for-18 from long range. … Duke outrebounded VT 35-22, held a second-chance points advantage of 17-3, and outscored VT 38-22 in the paint. … Duke shot 53.4%, the second straight game it has shot over 50%.