The Duke basketball defense had been on the struggle bus since the holidays.
Despite a suffocating second half against Louisville the Blue Devils have been unable to consistently stop its opposition and it has put a lot of pressure on its offense to win games, but it finally got back to its roots on Wednesday night in Berkley.
No. 6 Duke outmuscled Cal 71-56 to remain perfect in ACC play and land its fifth straight victory.
The defensive charge was led by Dame Sarr, who held Golden Bears guard Dai Dai Ames scoreless on four shots in the first half as the rest of the team followed suit in the second half.
Cal (13-5, 1-4 ACC) shot only 36.5-percent from the floor and 21.7-percent from 3-point range as Duke held them to only 26 points in the second half.
The Bears took a 25-19 lead, its largest of the game, with 4:59 remaining in the second behind a 10-0 run before Duke really settled in. The Blue Devils outscored Cal 18-5 going into the locker room, including a 13-0 run to close the half in which Isaiah Evans scored eight points on a pair of 3-pointers and a spinning dunk.
Evans finished the game with 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting.
Duke (16-1, 5-0 ACC) tried to keep its momentum entering the second half, but Cal rattled off a 7-0 run to tie the game at 41, however, it would be all Duke from that point. Nik Khamenia, who scored eight of his ten points in the second half, was a catalyst in a 12-1 run that pushed the lead to 14 points, 62-48, with 6:57 remaining.
Khamenia notched an old fashioned 3-point play that gave Duke a nine-point lead, 56-47, that was the backbreaker for Cal.
From that point, Cameron Boozer put the finishing touches on the victory, scoring six consecutive points to finish with 21 points – 17 of which came in the second half.
The Blue Devils will look to become just the second ACC team in the newly constructed conference to sweep a California road trip with its matchup against Stanford (14-4, 3-2 ACC) on Saturday afternoon (6:00 p.m. ET, ACC Network).