Duke edges No. 1 Gonzaga

Duke stepped back into the national spotlight on the biggest of neutral court stages and beat top-ranked Gonzaga 84-81 on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

This back-and-forth slugfest saw the No. 5 Blue Devils (7-0) lead by as many as nine points in the first half, but neither team led by more than five throughout the second half.

Duke pulled ahead for good on two free throws by Wendell Moore Jr. with 4½ minutes left and held on from there, only allowing four field goals in the last five minutes – and two of those were with the Blue Devils holding a multi-possession lead.

The first half saw Duke’s star freshman Paolo Banchero explode for 20 points, as the 6-10, 250-pound dynamo led fast breaks, drained three 3-pointers and dished to teammates for easy scores.

But Banchero appeared to be dealing with cramping issues again in the second half, and only scored one more point in the game.

Enter Moore, who scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half. Duke’s junior co-captain took over the game in other ways, too: He had six rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Mark Williams was the constant force inside that Duke needed him to be, too, facing Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme. Duke’s sophomore center had 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting, nine rebounds and five blocks.

Jeremy Roach had one field goal for the first 35 minutes of the game, but tied the game with a layup with 4:41 left, and then came up with another clutch driving bucket with 48 seconds left that pushed Duke’s lead back to three, at 80-77.

Duke improved to 5-3 in its last eight games against No. 1-ranked teams, and did so in its first game away from Cameron Indoor Stadium since winning the season opener against Kentucky in New York.