DURHAM, N.C. — Duke won its 10th game of the season Tuesday, blowing past a pesky Princeton Tiger squad, 101-50.

The game proved to be a much more difficult battle early on for the Blue Devils than the final score might indicate.

The Blue Devils used an explosive second half effort, led by 14 second half points from R.J. Barrett. Barrett, who struggled early in the game, hit his first five shots of the second half, helping Duke to a 23-7 run over the first 5:42 of the half.

At that point, Duke had complete control of the game and the Blue Devils began to find their flow. Zion Williamson got into the action as well, scoring seven points through the first 10 minutes of the second half, and ultimately finishing with 17 for the game. Williamson also finished with a team-high 10 rebounds.

Barrett eventually made 6-of-7 shots in the half and finished the day with a game-high 27 points.

“It was a matter of letting the game come to us,” Barrett said of Duke making shots in the second half. “We started getting blocks and steals and run-outs so it was a lot easier.

“We know that we’re a team that can score, so we weren’t worried about it. We just had to keep playing hard on the defensive end.”

Unlike most of the first half, Duke was able to get out in transition, ultimately scoring 14 points on the fast break and converting nine second half turnovers into 13 points. The Blue Devils finished with 24 fast break points and 23 off 19 turnovers.

Despite the second half effort, as expected, the Blue Devils had a bit of rust they needed to shake off after a 10-day break since last taking the court on Dec. 8, a 91-58 victory over Yale.

Duke’s early game struggles led it to post its second lowest first half scoring total of the season, 39 points, just six more than the lowest output which came against Hartford on Dec. 5.

The Blue Devils struggles were highlighted by a four minute and seven second drought to open the game. They were 0-of-8 to start the game, and didn’t score their first basket until the 15:53 mark when Barrett finally connected on a layup.

Despite the made basket, Duke still found it difficult to make shots and Princeton capitalized, holding a lead for all but 17 seconds through the first 14:15 of the game.

During the stretch, Princeton kept the Blue Devils’ defense on their heels with backdoor cuts and open jumpers from the perimeter. The made baskets and ability to slow the game down prevented Duke from being able to run and get easy buckets in transition.

The Blue Devils did, however, lock in on the backdoor cuts and take them away pretty quickly.

“It happened to me twice early in the game,” Williamson said of getting beat on a backdoor cut. “I was just trying to contest my man too high and he just backdoor cut me two times in a row. That wasn’t good. I had to really fix that.”

Barrett attributed the effort of the Duke bigs to take Princeton’s opportunities away.

“Just knowing that they were coming and the bigs did a great job coming out to help,” he said in regards to the cuts. “When they would get there the bigs would block it. I think we had 14 blocks, so they didn’t want to come in there after a while.”

For the half, Duke posted just 10 fast break points. The majority of those, however, came in the final 5:45. Barrett and Williamson, along with a couple big shots from Jack White and Alex O’Connell eventually found a rhythm in those final minute of the opening half.

Duke’s offensive success came as a result of an improved defensive effort over the final 10 minutes of the half. From the 10:33 mark, Duke put together a 16-2 run, over the 6:19. With just over four minutes to go in the half, the Blue Devils had stretched out a nine point and eventually a 15-point advantage with just under a minute to go.

Though things weren’t exactly clicking and free flowing, even during the 28-10 run to close the final 10-plus minutes, Duke had the game well under control by the half with a 39-26 advantage.

Head Mike Krzyzewski’s team ultimately did what he’s been harping on all season long - lean on its defense.

Duke did exactly that, finishing the day with 12 steals, while also recording 14 blocks. After allowing Princeton to shoot an admirable, at least in comparison to other opponents, 40-percent in the first half, Duke’s defense eventually limited good looks at the basket, holding them to 22.2-percent in the final 20 minutes.

On the flip side of that, the Blue Devils shot 63.6-percent after making just 41.2-percent in the opening 20 minutes.

Though shots were not falling early for Duke, Krzyzewski was comfortable with the shots his team was taking. He told them as much during halftime. Duke continued to take good shots, and eventually things started to workout.

“We kept telling each other, ‘keep shooting, they’re going to go in. We’re getting really good shots,’” Barrett said. “They started falling.”

The Blue Devils will now head to New York to face off with Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden.