DURHAM, N.C. ? And the Streak keeps going, thanks to a nearly perfect performance by Diana Taurasi and her Huskies.

Second-ranked Connecticut breezed to its 59th consecutive victory, easily defeating No. 1 Duke, 77-65, Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 9,314 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I know our defense is good, but it was better than good in the first half,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s about as good as we have ever played — this group anyway. It would be hard to play any better.”

UConn’s streak is the best in women’s basketball history and third all-time, trailing only two men’s programs — UCLA’s 88 in a row from 1971-74 and San Francisco’s 60 consecutive from 1955-57.

Taurasi and Ann Strother scored 17 points each for the Huskies (20-0), who used a 15-0 run to close the first half. But the win didn’t come without a scare after UConn built its lead to 28 points in the second half.

“The air was out of our sails, that was obvious,” Auriemma said of the final eight minutes. “I could see it during a timeout. I looked at them and said, ‘We’ve lost our confidence. We’ve got to get it back.’ Those first 30 minutes took a lot out of us.

“Halftime came at the right time for them, and the end of the game came at the right time for us.”

Duke (20-1) used a 30-11 run to get back into it and closed within nine two different times before UConn went 11-for-12 from the foul line over the final 1:58 to close it out.

“We knew going into the last few minutes it was going to come down to foul shots and taking care of the ball,” UConn forward Ashley Battle said.

The Blue Devils had been No. 1 the first 12 weeks of the season, but the defending national champions will take over the top spot this week thanks to their double-digit victory.

“If we play again next week it could be a different outcome,” Auriemma said. “I don’t think you should infer anything from a game in February. The NCAA Tournament is a whole different thing.

“You know what, all this proves is that Duke can lose. Next week at Boston College, we could lose and all that proves is that we can lose. We’re all flawed. There are no teams out there that you’re scared to death to play them — including us.”

Duke All-American Alana Beard, who came in averaging 23.5 points a game, had just nine points with 10 minutes remaining before she finished with 26.

Meanwhile, Connecticut’s inside players dominated and its defense was super most of the night, holding the Blue Devils to 33.3 percent shooting.

The Huskies led 26-20 before the Blue Devils went the final seven minutes of the first half without a hoop, going 0-for-9 from the field while Connecticut had its way on the inside.

Twelve of UConn’s 18 first-half baskets were either layups or follows while the Blue Devils missed 25 of 32 shots and turned it over 10 times to fall into a deep hole by the break.

“I thought we were very much out of sorts in the first half — and I give them credit for that,” Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. “You can’t get frazzled against them and you’ve got to hit shots. Poise and patience were our themes of the day and I don’t think we had either one.”