DURHAM, N.C. — With three minutes remaining in the first half, Duke junior guard Gerald Henderson gestured to the roaring crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium. He opened his arms and shrugged his shoulders, as if to tell the fans that even he could not believe how well he was playing.

At that point, Henderson was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. His hot shooting sparked a 17-2 Duke run at the end of the first half and the Blue Devils never looked back. They went on to win 76-67.

“[Henderson] put them on his shoulders and carried them,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said after the game. “He got into a rhythm and made everything he threw up.”

No. 13 Georgetown falls to 12-4, while No. 3 Duke improves to 16-1. The Blue Devils have now won eight consecutive games and a Division I-best 68 consecutive home games against non-league opponents.

Henderson led all scorers with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Sophomore forward Kyle Singler added 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Blue Devils.

Junior forward DaJuan Summers led the Hoyas with 21 points and seven rebounds. However, he was only 5-of-10 from the free-throw line and missed a number of opportunities to cut into the Duke deficit late in the game.

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he was impressed with Summers’ performance.

“Summers is a very special player – one of the best we’ve played against this year or will play against,” Krzyzewski said.

Summers led a Georgetown run early in the second half that cut the Duke lead to 46-42 with 15:34 remaining. The Hoyas found success with a different lineup at the beginning of the second half, as sophomore guard/forward Omar Wattad and freshman guard Jason Clark started in place of sophomore guard Chris Wright and senior guard Jessie Sapp.

Sapp did not score in the game and has seen his playing time diminish lately. In the last two games, Clark has averaged 26 minutes while Sapp has averaged only 19 minutes.

Thompson said that the Hoyas will continue to use different lineups depending on how each game develops.

“I think we continue to see our comfort level with different groups,” Thompson said. “Tonight it was Omar [Wattad] and Jason [Clark]. We made two separate runs when those guys were on the floor, so it’s going to be a different group on different nights depending on the flow, depending on what my feel is, and what I think is working and what is not working.”

One of the key moments in the game occurred shortly after Georgetown had cut the Duke lead to four points. With 15:07 remaining, freshman center Greg Monroe was given a technical foul while he was sitting on the bench. Both Monroe and Thompson expressed disbelief at the call and pointed to a man sitting behind them, suggesting that the fan was the one who had spoken out of line. The call changed the momentum of the game, as Monroe picked up his fourth foul and Duke junior guard Jon Scheyer hit both free throws.

Thompson said that the technical on Monroe was “a key part of the game,” but he did not blame the Hoyas’ loss on the call. He said the Hoyas were simply outplayed.

“[The technical foul on Monroe] clearly altered how they attacked us and what we could do, but that’s not the reason why we ended up with less points than them tonight,” Thompson said. “They played very well. They made plays, particularly in the first half.”

In fact, the scoring was basically even throughout most of the game. The difference was the final minutes of the first half, when Henderson caught fire.

The Hoyas will next play West Virginia at Verizon Center on Thursday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN.

“