The Blue Devils pulled away for an 82-55 win in the first round of the tournament, but their showing against Lamar, the No. 16 seed out of the Southland Conference, failed to live up to expectations heaped upon the No. 1 team in the country.

“There’s a misconception when you play a 16 team that if you don’t win by 40 it’s a bad game,” Duke forward Shane Battier said. “It was an un-Duke like performance, but a lot of that was Lamar. They made us not look very good tonight. Give them credit.”

Lamar, a 32-point underdog, stirred upset hopes among the crowd at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. A 16th seed has never beaten a No. 1 in the history of the NCAA Tournament, and while the Blue Devils won by 27 points, it was only an 11-point lead at halftime. The close game had the Cardinals’ faithful chanting “Over-rated!” at the Blue Devils (28-4) when they emerged from the locker room to start the second half.

Lamar (15-16) drained 11 of 21 shots from the 3-point line, the most of any Duke opponent this year. Junior Kenyon Spears went 5-for-12 from beyond the arc for a game-high 19 points, while freshman Thaydeus Holden added three treys and 13 points.

“Lamar had some open shots and they did a great job of capitalizing on that,” Battier said. “As a result of giving up so many 3s, they were able to stay in the game.”

The last time Duke trailed was at 7-6 before the Devils took off on a 10-0 run, spurred by sub Nick Horvath’s 3-pointer and dunk on consecutive possessions.

When the lead broached double digits, Bobby Manheimer and Spears hit back-to-back 3s. Holden’s trey cut the lead to 28-26 with 6:31 left in the half before Nate James answered with a pair of bombs to give Duke a 44-33 edge at the break.

“We were in awe right before the tip, but we scored a couple of times and loosened up,” said Lamar senior Landon Rowe, who finished with 10 points. “We got a couple of boards and realized maybe we can compete.”

With the outside game going Lamar’s way, the Blue Devils turned to their huge advantage in the low post, where Carlos Boozer did anything he pleased — when his teammates decided to get him the ball. The 6-foot-8 freshman had only six points at halftime but muscled his way to five straight Duke baskets midway through the second half to finish with 16 points.

That stretch helped the Blue Devils take their first 20-point lead of the night before three straight 3-pointers cut the lead to 69-54 with 6:39 remaining. Duke called for time, and the strategy worked. The Cardinals lost their shooting touch and missed their final 10 field-goal attempts. The scoring drought lasted 6:10 before a meaningless free throw inside of 30 seconds to play.

The cold finish made the loss appear much worse than it was, and even the Duke fans acknowledged Lamar’s effort with a warm round of applause in the closing seconds.

“If I was some of those guys, I can go back and tell my friends, ‘Yeah, I gave it to Duke, you see the way I was knocking those shots down?’” said James, one of four Blue Devils in double figures with 12 points. “Fortunately tonight we were playing a team we had a little more talent than they had.”

Lamar’s players also can brag of teaching the Blue Devils a lesson, one they’re most grateful for.

“I definitely think it sharpened our teeth tonight,” Battier said. “We saw the realization that if we don’t play like we have all year, we’ll be watching the rest of the tournament at home.”

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