Derrick Williams scored 25 points in the first half, but his Arizona Wildcats trail at the intermission 44-38 to the Duke Blue Devils.
Blue Devils Kyle Singler and Kyrie Irving each scored 14 in the first half.
Early on, Singler and Williams carried their respective teams. Arizona’s forward scored 10 of UA’s first 13 points while the Duke senior led the Blue Devils with 10 of their first 14 scores.
Irving added seven point early as well, though Arizona kept it close, trailing 19-18 nearly halfway through the first half.
But a 12-2 run over a four-minute stretch extended the Duke lead to 31-20. Arizona made a push back, once again behind Williams’ perimeter game.
Williams didn’t just do it on the scoring end, but put Singler and Miles Plumlee in foul trouble in the first half — they each had two. He also drilled 5-for-6 from 3-point range to score 25 points in the first half.
An alley-oop from Irving to Mason Plumlee put Duke on top by nine, but Williams hit his fifth 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Duke a 44-48 halftime lead.
The Wildcats shot 48 percent to the Blue Devils’ 53 percent from the field in the first half.