BOSTON – Seth Curry scored 18 points and No. 5 Duke didn’t need another late rally as it cruised to a 75-50 win over Boston College behind a smothering defense Sunday night.

The Blue Devils erased a 20-point deficit in the final 11 1⁄2 minutes to beat N.C. State, 78-73, on Thursday night. Eight days earlier, they had come back from 10 points down with 2 1⁄2 minutes left to beat North Carolina, 85-84, in Chapel Hill.

But against BC, Duke went ahead for good on a layup by Austin Rivers midway through the first half, 15-13, led 30-21 at intermission and stretched that to 28 points midway through the second half.

Duke (23-4, 10-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) pulled into a tie for the league lead with North Carolina and Florida State.

Boston College (8-19, 3-10) was led by Ryan Anderson with 18 points. The freshman had scored a season-high 22 in BC’s last game, an 81-65 loss at Maryland.

Rivers finished with 16 points and Andre Dawkins had 13 for the Blue Devils.

The win was Duke’s fourth straight since a 78-74 loss in overtime to Miami. BC lost for the ninth time in 10 games and is 1-10 against Duke since joining the ACC.

Duke’s defense was so effective that it held the Eagles to their season-low point total – their previous was 51. And they went without a basket for more than 14 minutes after taking a 13-7 lead on a 3-pointer by Anderson with 16:34 left in the first half.

Boston College didn’t get another field goal until a 3 by Matt Humphrey cut the lead to 25-19 with 2:21 to play before the break.

The Blue Devils kept blanketing the Eagles, who didn’t get their first basket of the second half until Humphrey hit another 3 with 16:43 left in the game. That was just BC’s fourth field goal in a span of just under 20 minutes.

By that time Duke, which scored the first six points after intermission, led 39-25. It was 46-31 when Duke really took control with a 13-0 run that made it 59-31 with 8:16 remaining. It used its long-distance shooting – it leads the ACC in 3-pointers made – to pull away.