The Duke Blue Devils stay hot. The reigning ACC tournament champions kicked off their 2023 March Madness campaign with a comprehensive 74-51 victory Thursday night against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Duke basketball in that win is how suffocating its defense remains.

“Duke beat Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament First Round, 74-51, holding ORU to 33 points below its average of 84.2 ppg. It marks the 31st time in 35 games Duke has held a team below its season scoring average (27-4 in those games),” per DukeMBBStats.

Oral Roberts struggled to find good scoring opportunities against the Blue Devils. Duke basketball held the Golden Eagles to only 30.2 percent shooting from the field and just 8-for-32 from behind the arc. Max Abmas, the star guard of the Golden Eagles finished with just 12 points on 15 attempts from the field and only two shots from the free-throw line. No Oral Roberts player shot better than 50 percent.

Prior to the NCAA tournament, Duke basketball ranked 17th in the nation in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom, with the Blue Devils giving up 93.9 points per 100 possessions. They were also 17th in the regular season with opponents posting only 46.0 effective field goal percentage.

That defense has made Duke basketball terrifying to face, not to mention the stack of great talents that it has from top to bottom of the lineup.

Up next for the Blue Devils in the second round will be the winner of the matchup between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Lousiana Ragin' Cajuns.