DURHAM— If news of Jason Williams’ broken foot caught the Duke coaching staff off guard, imagine how surprised the Blue Devil point guard was to hear about it.

A story circulating on the internet this week claiming Williams had a stress fracture proved untrue, although the minute his coaches heard about it they immediately went to the source. On Tuesday, Williams assured them it was only a sprain.

Wednesday night against Wake Forest, he showed everyone it’s a minor sprain at that. Williams scored 27 points and connected on 5-of-8 from long range to lead the No. 2 BlueDevils to an 85-62 win over No. 9 Wake.

The win kept Duke atop the Atlantic Coast Conference standings at 18-1 overall, 6-0 in the league, tied with North Carolina. Wake fell to 14-4, 3-4, with all four losses coming on the road.

Williams led a 3-point barrage that sparked a 21-3 rally to end the first half and killed several Demon Deacon rallies in the second. Duke senior Shane Battier finished 5-for-11 from the arc and scored 22 points, while sophomore Mike Dunleavy hit 3-of-4 treys and had a season-high 21.

As a team, the Blue Devils shot 14-for-26, a 53.8-percent clip against one of the nation’s stingiest defenses — Wake had been allowing a mere 25-percent shooting from long range.

“Those are the shots we take when we’re up 30 or up three. That just comes from building habits,”Battier said. “Even if we miss a couple, if we have a look, we’re going to take it.”

Duke did miss a few early, but didn’t shy away from the arc. That’s because Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom decided to let the Blue Devils shoot the long ball in exchange for taking away center Carlos Boozer.

That part of the plan succeeded, as Boozer finished with just four points, 11 below his average. Duke’s lights-out shooting performance was something the Deacs could not combat.

“We wanted to take away the inside game and make them go to the outside,”Odom said. “I think it is difficult to take away both on the same night and you have to pick your poison and hope whatever is happening on the other end goes in your favor.

“Tonight it did not.”

What happened on the other end was a staunch Duke defense that suffocated the Deacs.

Wake’s Craig Dawson nailed a 3-pointer with 6:46 to play in the first half to put his team up 26-24. More than five minutes passed before Wake connected on another field-goal attempt.

Williams turned a turnover into a layup and made a circus catch for an alley-oop layup from Chris Duhon to put Duke back in front 30-26.

After a Wake timeout, Battier drained a 3, Dunleavy tipped in a Williams miss, Battier drove to the hoop for two more and finished off an 18-1 run with another 3-pointer.

The Deacs missed six straight shots and committed two turnovers thanks to a Duke defense that extended well beyond the 3-point line. When Darius Songaila finally hit a jumper with 1:36 remaining in the half, the damage had been done. Duke led 42-29.

“Our defense was very good. Really good. That was the key factor in the game,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We didn’t give them open looks and we didn’t foul them. When you have a run like that, you can’t give easy points.”

Wake, playing without flu-ridden leading scorer Josh Howard, still made a push in the second half.

Ervin Murray’s jumper trimmed the lead to 11 points: Williams drained a 3. Rafael Vidaurreta’s layup made it 54-42: Williams answered with a 3. Broderick Hicks sparked a 6-0 Deacon run to pull his team within nine points.

And yes, Williams drained yet another 3. Then Dunleavy hit one and Duke began to take control again. Williams drove into the lane and scored over Songaila. He then picked Hicks’ pocket and slammed home two more.

Battier’s 3 made it 70-56 at the eight-minute mark and six straight points from Dunleavy stretched the lead to 18.

“We had a great night when you go over 50 percent from 3s,” Krzyzewski said. “Shane and Jason really felt big shots, and Dunleavy hit two huge (3s).”

Krzyzewski praised Dunleavy for his best game of the season and added he was proud of Williams’ play on a sprained foot. In addition to all the points, each guard finished with two steals, while the 6-foot-8 Dunleavy also had two blocks.

“We just came really focused today,”Williams said. “When we come in playing that kind of basketball, we’re a hard team to stop. Especially when our shots are falling and we’re playing good defensively, we’re a hard team to play with.”

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NOTES: Krzyzewski made it clear that Howard’s absence played a key role in Duke’s success. “Certainly Howard not playing had a huge impact on the game. Howard’s one of the best players in the conference,”he said. … Duke gets to continue its fun run against ranked foes Saturday night at No. 8 Maryland, then home for the No. 5 Tar Heels on Thursday. … Wake travels to Cincinnati on Saturday before returning to ACC play Wednesday against N.C. State.