Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - DeMarcus Nelson scored 13 points and grabbed nine boards, as the ninth-ranked Duke Blue Devils defeated the Temple Owls, 74-64, at the Wachovia Center.

Taylor King finished with 15 points and Greg Paulus poured in 13 for the Blue Devils (12-1), who open up conference play against ACC-rival Virginia on Sunday. Jon Scheyer contributed 10 points in the win.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski earned his 787th career win, breaking a tie with Lefty Driesell for sixth place on the all-time victory list.

"We feel really good about the win," said Krzyzewski. "Collectively, I thought we played well. We played really well defensively. Our freshman class did a really good job."

Dionte Christmas netted a game-high 23 points and pulled down seven boards for Temple (6-7), which kicks off its Atlantic 10 schedule with a visit to Charlotte on Saturday. Mark Tyndale donated 20 points in the loss.

"He did not have a good first half," said Temple coach Fran Dunphy, commenting on Christmas. "He tried to force a few things. He was out of sorts a bit in that first half, but he really rallied and put us on his back in the second half and he gave us a chance to cut it to eight points."

The game remained close early on, as both teams struggled out of the gate in the shooting department. Ryan Brooks drained a three-pointer from the far corner to cut Temple's deficit to 18-16.

Duke then stiffened up defensively, forcing several Owls turnovers, which led to easy buckets at the other end, and put together a 12-0 run to pull ahead 30-16.

King kick-started the spurt by knocking down a trey and Nelson's layup finished it off.

Paulus nailed a runner to give the Blue Devils a 39-23 lead, which they carried into the break.

Temple closed out the half missing eight of its last nine shots and finished with 12 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

Duke's advantage ballooned to 47-28 after a trey from Nelson. Christmas put the Owls on his back, scoring 15 consecutive points, including three three- pointers, to make it a 53-43 game with under 10 minutes remaining.

During Temple's run, the Blue Devils couldn't buy a basket, going more than eight minutes without scoring. Scheyer made a pair from the charity stripe to restore a 10-point cushion, 55-45, and Nelson pushed the lead to 61-45 after hitting two free throws.

Duke maintained a comfortable double-digit margin for the remainder of the contest.