No. 2 Duke 110, Ball St. 24

12/19/2005 10:11 PM

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Duke coach Gail Goestenkors was worried how her second-ranked Blue Devils would play after a 12-day layoff for exams.

Her Blue Devils quickly allayed those fears, scoring the first 23 points against visiting Ball State.

Allison Bales and Monique Currie each scored 18 points to lead No. 2 Duke to the largest margin of victory in school history, with a 110-24 rout of Ball State on Monday night.

``We were ready to play from the word 'go'. I was very pleased with our start,'' Goestenkors said. ``I was a little anxious to see how we'd come out and if we'd be a little off our rhythm, and we weren't. We were ready.''

The Blue Devils (8-0) also held Ball State to the fewest points ever by a Duke women's opponent. Bales added 18 rebounds and seven blocks for Duke.

``A lot of it came off our defense,'' Bales said. ``It was a real team effort. It's really never one person who scores.''

Ball State (6-3) missed its first 16 shots and its last 11. The Cardinals made just 9 of 71 (13 percent) from the field.

``You can't stop them,'' Ball State coach Tracy Roller said. ``They're just so deep. If you stop one of them, someone else gets hot. You try to stop their inside game, and their outside game gets going.''

``They're just in a different league than us.''

The Blue Devils, whose previous biggest rout was an 82-point victory over Elon on Nov. 21, 2003, are off to their best start since the 2002-03 season when they won their first 20 games.

Laura Kurz added 15 points, Mistie Williams 12 and Wanisha Smith 11 for Duke.

``They're just so athletic, they go right over you,'' Roller said. ``Plus, we got no second-shot opportunities.''

Roller said she couldn't tell her team anything that would have helped.

``All you can do is try to keep running you stuff, take your best shot and hope something good happens,'' Roller said.

Tina Bolte led Ball State with 6 points.

Currie was 5-for-6 in the first half and led Duke to a 57-9 lead at halftime with her 11 points. She ended up 7-for-8 for the night.

The Cardinals averaged 17 assists a game coming into Durham but were held to 6 by Duke. Five Cardinals came into the game averaging double-figure scoring - Julie DeMuth (12.9), Krista Stewart (12.8), Raechelle Hampton (10.8), Tina Bolt (10.8) and Porchia Green (10.5).