Matthew Hurt made six 3-point shots on the way to 24 points as No. 6 Duke defeated visiting Bellarmine 76-54 on Friday night in Durham, N.C.

Hurt shot 6-for-8 on 3-pointers as part of Duke's 13-for-26 shooting from long range. That included freshman Jaemyn Brakefield's 4-for-4, giving him 12 points.

It was a rude introduction to Division I for Bellarmine, which played its first game since moving up in classification from Division II. The Knights' first three scheduled games were called off because they were in a coronavirus-related quarantine.

The Blue Devils (2-1) responded from their setback Tuesday night against No. 8 Michigan State -- a 75-69 result that marked Duke's most-lopsided nonleague home loss in 25 years.

For the Bellarmine game, the Blue Devils went with a starting lineup change as freshman post player Mark Williams was with the first-string unit for the first time and guard Jordan Goldwire was back as a starter after a game coming off the bench. Williams blocked four shots and led the Blue Devils with seven rebounds.

Hurt, who was 9-for-12 overall from the field, and Brakefield each had six rebounds. Duke shot 51.8 percent from the field.

Duke built a 12-2 lead -- half those points coming on a pair of Brakefield 3-pointers -- in slightly more than five minutes despite starting forward Jalen Johnson picking up two early fouls for the second straight game.

Brakefield soon added another 3 -- and that was more than Bellarmine's total field goals (2-for-10) at that juncture.

Nick Thelen's 14 points and Ethan Claycomb's 13 points paced Bellarmine.

Like Duke, Bellarmine has been a regular NCAA Tournament participant, but that came in Division II for the Knights.

In this debut, the Knights didn't have a player with more than three points until almost 15 minutes into the game.

For Duke, this marked a game in between showdowns with Big Ten opponents, with a matchup with Illinois on Tuesday night's docket. Sunday's Elon-Duke game has been postponed because of coronavirus issues with the Elon team.

--Field Level Media