By Andrew Jones
FOXSportsSouth.com
January 28, 2011
Durham, N.C. -- Life was easier for Nolan Smith on Thursday night.
Those 40 minutes within the lines on Coach K Court at Cameron Indoor Stadium came with a comfort for Smith, knowing he and Kyle Singler didn't have to carry Duke in order to defeat Boston College.
Relief settled in early as it was apparent Ryan Kelly was putting together a third consecutive quality performance, and when Seth Curry started raining 3s, it was almost easy street for the senior guard and his sidekick.
Smith and Singler are All-Americans even when they aren't sharp, but when they don't have to carry the load, they are even better. On this night, Smith became more of a floor general, even though the box score said he finished with 28 points. But his eight assists more reflect where his mind was in the Devils' 84-68 victory.
"It makes things very easy and it shows how dangerous we can be going forward," Smith said. "We just want to continue to get everybody's egos higher and higher. If we can get Andre, Seth and all of those guys going on the same day, we're going to be a dangerous team to beat."
Kelly hit all five of his field-goal attempts in the first half, bringing his streak of made shots to 18. He drained his last three attempts versus Virginia 11 days ago before going 4-for-4 at N.C. State and sinking all six attempts at Wake Forest last weekend. The mark was two short of the Duke record, held by Alaa Abdelnaby in the late 1980s.
"I can
