BLACKSBURG, Va.—Duke's coaching staff had a very important question for Jahlil Okafor in the hours leading up to Wednesday night's game: Can you play?
The freshman center had barely practiced since suffering a sprained ankle in the first half of Duke's come-from-behind win against then-No. 15 North Carolina Feb. 18. After it became clear he wouldn't play Feb. 22 against Clemson, head coach Mike Krzyzewski said Okafor had tears in his eyes.
Feeling rested and healthy, the Chicago native gave the Blue Devils the answer they were looking for: Yes. Then he went out and proved it.
Okafor returned to the lineup with a vengeance, recording the first 30-point game of his career to help No. 4 Duke survive an upset scare from Virginia Tech with a 91-86 overtime victory at Cassell Coliseum.
"I knew for sure [I would play] when I came in the locker room. My coaches were telling me to let them know if I was going to play or not," Okafor said. "When I got in the locker room, I saw my teammates getting ready and I knew there was no way I wasn’t playing tonight."
Quinn Cook scored 21 of his 26 points after halftime—including a critical corner 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the extra session—and Justise Winslow added 15 for the Blue Devils (25-3, 12-3 in the ACC). But down the stretch, Krzyzewski put the ball in the hands of his 6-foot-11 center and let him go to work.
Playing their second overtime game in three contests, the Blue Devils fed Okafor on the block repeatedly in the extra session. The freshman backed down Satchel Pierce to give Duke the lead, then drew a foul on the Hokie freshman and hit both free throws. After another whistle on Pierce sent him to the bench after fouling out, Okafor came to the elbow and dumped a lob pass into Winslow—who had posted up his man in the now-vacated key—for a lay-up that put Duke ahead 83-80.
Okafor had a chance to win it in regulation, but missed two free throws with 21 seconds remaining. But facing single coverage on the block, the freshman put the missed opportunity in the past and scored Duke's first four points in overtime.
"For him to play that much, and after missing the two free throws, a lot of kids would not want the ball again in the overtime," Krzyzewski said. "And obviously, he wanted it all the time.... The kid's a great player and a great competitor.”
Krzyzewski said that he thought Okafor would be healthy enough to play, and that after the freshman confirmed he was feeling ready to go, the next question became one of his endurance. The Preseason AP Player of the Year played 37 minutes and said postgame that his ankle felt fine.
After Okafor's missed free throws near the end of regulation kept the score knotted at 77-77, the Hokies (10-18, 2-13) had a chance to spring the upset. But freshman Jalen Hudson's runner glanced off the rim as Duke got the one stop it needed.
The Blue Devil defense was not at its best Wednesday—the Hokies shot 53.4 percent from the floor and made 12-of-22 from downtown. But just like they did against the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils clamped down with the game on the line.
“This has been our second game when they had the ball at the end of regulation with no shot clock and we just had to get a stop,” freshman Tyus Jones said.
In the beginning, it didn't look as though the contest would stay competitive for long. Duke rattled off 13 straight points to claim a 15-4 lead in the opening minutes, but Virginia Tech closed the first half strong, taking a 39-37 lead into the locker room after six straight points by sophomore guard Devin Wilson.
The offensive barrage continued for the Hokies out of the break, as Hudson and Adam Smith knocked in triples from opposite corners on Virginia Tech's first two second-half possessions, baskets made even more important by Duke turnovers at the end of the floor.
"I’ve had to really tone down the practices. As a result, you get slippage," Krzyzewski said. "The main slippage is in defense, when you don’t practice as much. We’ve got to pace our guys, and for practice, with Jah hurt, you’ve got seven guys.... We’re in it for the long haul, and we have to do those things, but you’re going to have slippage."
Duke's freshman quartet scored 30 of the team's 37 first-half points, but it was two upperclassmen who got the Blue Devils back on track.
After Winslow split defenders in transition for a dunk, Cook and Matt Jones scored eight straight points in less than a minute—the final three coming on a Jones triple near the top of the key off a broken play—to retake a 59-57 lead with 10:40 to play. The senior was held to just five points in the first half. but made five of his six 3-pointers after intermission.
"Quinn, who had not been playing [well for the] first game in—again, he’s a human being—all of a sudden he’s there," said Krzyzewski, who has given Cook just one minute of rest in the last five games. "He’s knocking down threes and all of a sudden it turns into being—wow.... We finally participated at the level that we needed to to be at the level of winning."
After a long bus ride to Durham through the snow—one that would have felt even longer with a loss—Duke will face Syracuse Saturday at 7 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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