For about three minutes Friday, it looked like Duke might suffer the same fate against Richmond as it did against High Point — and that its Atlantic Coast Conference colleagues Virginia and Notre Dame endured against High Point and Richmond, respectively.

Had the upstart Southern Conference surpassed the mighty ACC?

The ninth-ranked Blue Devils squelched that notion with an outstanding defensive effort, dominant faceoff play and timely scoring, digging themselves out of an early three-goal hole to defeat the 11th-ranked Spiders 11-7.

Richmond scored three goals in the first 2 minutes, 18 seconds of the game, prompting Duke to pull starting goalie Turner Uppgren and insert backup David McCann, who performed capably with eight saves.

The Blue Devils’ defense, led by JT Giles-Harris (three caused turnovers), buckled down from there, blanking the Spiders for more than 17 minutes as Duke answered with four straight goals.

Richmond led 6-5 midway through the third quarter before the Blue Devils sprung to life once more, netting six of the game’s final seven goals. Duke got three goals apiece from attackmen Joe Robertson and Brad Smith. Faceoff specialist Brian Smyth went 14-for-21. The Blue Devils scooped nearly twice as many ground balls (30) as the Spiders (13) and harangued Richmond into committing 18 turnovers.

Nike/US Lacrosse
Division I Men’s
Top 20 Scoreboard

No. 9 Duke 11, Richmond 7