CORAL GABLES, Fla. After senior guard Nolan Smith took a finger to the eye in the game's seventh minute Sunday, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski looked down the bench and didn't see him there.

He was told Smith, the ACC scoring and assists leader, had been taken to the locker room for treatment.

"Well, that's not good," Krzyzewski said he was thinking.

It wasn't good, but it wasn't catastrophic, either, thanks to sophomore guard Seth Curry. With Smith limited to nine first-half minutes because of the eye injury and foul trouble, Curry staked No.5-ranked Duke to a five-point halftime lead in an 81-71 win against Miami at BankUnited Center.

Curry, a former Charlotte Christian standout, built upon Wednesday's 22-point effort against No.20 North Carolina. He scored 13 of his 16 points against Miami in the first half, when his team needed him most.

"That (North) Carolina game helped me a lot with my confidence," Curry said. "But it's still a work in progress. I continue to work in practice. I had a couple good days of practice after the Carolina game and have to continue to get better."

After missing two free throws, Curry made a second-chance 3-pointer from the wing 64 seconds before halftime to give Duke a 40-37 lead it would not relinquish. One minute later, Miles Plumlee scored on a feed from younger brother Mason Plumlee for a 42-37 halftime lead.

In the locker room at halftime, Krzyzewski talked to Smith, who'd had his eye filled with medicine and numbed. He told Smith to play the second half the way he'd played the entire season.

After consecutive 3-pointers by Garrius Adams and Adrian Thomas cut Duke's lead to 52-51, Smith went to work.

He drove the lane for a one-handed score. He swished a 3-pointer from the wing in front of the Duke bench. After a Durand Scott turnover, Smith rushed down the floor for a fast-break layup. That gave him seven points in 67 seconds and extended the Blue Devils' lead to 61-51.

Miami coach Frank Haith called timeout, but it was too late. Smith had done his damage and would do more. He finished with a game-high 18 points - 16 in the second half - as the Blue Devils (23-2, 10-1 ACC) earned a big win on the road.

"At halftime, God bless him," Krzyzewski said. "A lot of kids wouldn't have been able to respond. And he gets 16 [points]. . .in the second half."

The Hurricanes (15-10, 4-7) had played an ACC-record eight straight games that were decided by four points or fewer and started strong behind Malcolm Grant and Reggie Johnson, who each scored 16 points. This time, though, it wasn't going to be that close.

Curry knocked the Hurricanes down, and Smith knocked them out. Duke extended its lead over second-place North Carolina (18-6, 8-2) atop the ACC standings, avoiding a letdown on the road and overcoming their lead guard's first-half troubles.

"We've got a lot of depth," said forward Ryan Kelly. "We've got a lot of guys that can certainly put the ball in the basket.

"Coach told us that teams that are going to win championships win this game. It's a game that people maybe are going to look past, or look back to the game before. And we came out and really put that in our rear-view mirror."