The top-seeded Duke Blue Devils kicked off their quest for a national title with an 85-62 victory over the No. 16 North Dakota State Bison on Friday in the 2019 NCAA men's tournament.

After a late-season lull following Zion Williamson's knee injury, head coach Mike Krzyzewski has his team back on track. The Blue Devils have now won four straight tournament games, including their ACC title win last week.

Zion Williamson's first exposure to March Madness was a success. The star freshman finished with 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting. RJ Barrett overcame a slow start to contribute 26 points and 14 rebounds.

The Blue Devils looked sluggish out of the gate, trailing 12-5 after five minutes. Williamson was doing most of the heavy lifting early, making four of their seven field goals 14 minutes into the game.

Points were hard to come by for Duke throughout the first half. Williamson and Barrett combined to score 20 of the team's 31 points.

Even Barrett was held in check until scoring three baskets in the final four minutes before intermission. He was 1-of-6 from the field prior to that outburst.

Cam Reddish was a non-factor early with just four points and no field goals. It continued his string of bad performances after averaging 8.0 points in three ACC tournament games.

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, their defense was on point. They forced eight turnovers in the first half and held the Bison to 2-of-15 from three-point range.

The ACC champions turned things on at the start of the second half, scoring more points in the first nine minutes of the second half (32) than in the first 20 minutes.

This is what makes Duke so dangerous. Even when there is a lull early in the game, Coach K is great at making adjustments during halftime that immediately produce results.

North Dakota State did everything in its power to give Duke a challenge. The Summit League champions landed a couple of solid jabs that stunned Duke.

Eventually, though, the Blue Devils' talent overwhelmed them, and a lot of the shots that Duke missed early started falling. It's why it earned the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament and is favored to cut down the nets in Minneapolis.

What's Next?

Duke will take on the winner of VCU-Central Florida in the second round Sunday.