No. 9 Duke 71, Air Force 56

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -DeMarcus Nelson scored a career-high 23 points, and No. 9 Duke rode a strong-shooting first half to a 71-56 victory over Air Force on Monday night in the semifinals of the CBE Classic.<br> <br> Freshman Lance Thomas added 15 points, and Jon Scheyer finished with 12 for the Blue Devils (4-0), who will play the winner of Monday&#39;s late game between Texas Tech and No. 13 Marquette on Tuesday.<br> <br> Duke shot 74 percent (17-for-23) from the field in the first half, but the Blue Devils went cold after the break and didn&#39;t make another shot after Greg Paulus&#39; 3-pointer with 5:45 left gave them a 59-47 lead.<br> <br> The Blue Devils led 38-24 at halftime but didn&#39;t score for almost three minutes to start the second half.<br> <br> The Falcons (4-1) twice closed the gap to seven points, the last time on Dan Nwaelele&#39;s basket with 8 minutes left that cut the deficit to 54-47, but went scoreless for almost five minutes.<br> <br> Jacob Burtschi missed a layup that would have made it 54-49 with 7:20 left, and Nelson made a layup on Duke&#39;s next possession. Paulus hit a 3-pointer for a 59-47 lead, and the Falcons didn&#39;t get the margin under double digits again.<br> <br> Burtschi and Nick Welch led Air Force with 12 points each, and Nwaelele added 10 points for the Falcons.<br> <br> The Blue Devils outrebounded the Falcons 30-10, including a 13-4 advantage in the first half.