The Duke Blue Devils took care of business against the Seattle Redhawks on Friday night, putting together another impressive defensive performance at home in the 70-48 victory, but the offense left some points on the board with a massive ranked battle on deck.

The last time the Duke Blue Devils returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium after a neutral-site loss this season, they held the Wofford Terriers to 35 points, a program record in the shot clock era. While Duke didn’t match the offensive output from that 51-point victory, the defense returned to form on Friday.

The Redhawks only managed 25 points in the first half after they made six of their 23 shots, and that was their more productive section of the game. The Blue Devils held Seattle completely scoreless for the first eight minutes after the break as veteran presences like Sion James and Maliq Brown harassed Seattle ballhandlers and gave them minimal open looks.

The Duke defense ended Friday’s game with four blocks and 12 steals, and the Blue Devils ended up with 44 rebounds to Seattle’s 37 as they allowed six second-chance points.

While the Blue Devils looked elite once again on the protective end, the scoring side took its time shaking off the cobwebs. It took them nearly 12 minutes to reach 20 points for the game thanks to a two-for-nine start from behind the arc, and Duke connected on just four of its first 17 looks from distance.

In four games at Cameron Indoor Stadium so far this season, all against unranked teams, the Blue Devils have averaged 35.3 3-point attempts per game against just 28.3 2-point looks, a staggering split. While Friday’s 10/36 (27.8%) performance was just the second time Duke made fewer than 36.0% of its triples, the early variance from such a shot selection has created some deceptive slow starts just like Friday.

Five-star freshman Isaiah Evans offered a bright spot for the home crowd, however. The North Carolina native has been overshadowed by his three teammates who won starting roles over the offseason, but he finished Friday’s game with nine points in a season-high 17 minutes thanks to a pair of 3-pointers and a breakaway dunk.

While he’s only played against unranked opponents at home so far this season, Evans is averaging 9.7 points in 12.7 minutes per game over his last three appearances.

Cooper Flagg, who punctuated his return to Durham with a two-handed dunk in the opening half, ended with a ho-hum nine points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, a stat line he’s normalized remarkably quickly.

He and his teammates need a productive week of practice, however, because the undefeated Auburn Tigers come to town this coming Wednesday for the Blue Devils’ fourth top-25 battle in six games.