DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Duke coach Gail Goestenkors could have understood it had her third-ranked Blue Devils started off rusty against Liberty on Sunday.
They were eight days into their final exams break, a stretch of 11 days with just one game. And Liberty had upset then-No. 19 Kansas State just about a week earlier.
But Duke didn't start slow. In fact, the Blue Devils had their best first half of the season and then coasted to an 83-48 victory over the Flames.
Wanisha Smith scored a career-high 21 points for Duke (8-1), which won its sixth straight, while Monique Currie added 15, Mistie Williams 11 and Laura Kurz 10.
"I was very pleased with the first half and, in the second half, I thought that we really lost our focus when we got the big lead," Goestenkors said. "You can see that clearly with our turnovers."
The Blue Devils shot 54.3 percent and had only four turnovers in the first 20 minutes, both first-half bests this season.
"We needed to start well, and we didn't, and consequently we got in trouble very early," Liberty coach Carey Green said.
On their first 12 possessions the Flames (3-4) had eight turnovers and hit just 1-of-7 shots.
"We started out well (at Kansas State) -- 10-2, I think. Here, it was 10-2 the other way," Green said.
Smith scored 12 points and Williams was 4-for-4 from the field and had eight points as Duke took a 46-26 lead, but Duke could never quite shake the Flames.
"We knew they were going to come out playing hard," Smith said. "They weren't going to let us run all over them. We just took advantage of some things that we'd been working on in practice and that worked out for us."
Liberty was down 54-36 with 12:12 to play after four Flames scored in an 8-0 run. Duke answered with an 11-0 run, sparked by a 3-pointer by Kurz and capped by consecutive baskets by Smith, that made it 65-36 with 9:45 to play.
"We got the big lead and we relaxed a bit, and you can't afford to relax," Goestenkors said. "I told the team after the game, 'You got away with losing your focus today, but you won't get away it very often, though.'"
Katie Feenstra, Liberty's 6-foot-8 center, played the final 11:14 with four fouls but still had 13 points. Kristal Tharp added 10 for the Flames, who lost their second straight.
Feenstra committed two fouls in the game's opening 4:15 and spent most of the first half on the bench. That allowed Duke to get 20 points in the paint before halftime. The Blue Devils outscored Liberty 29-16 in the paint for the game.