In their last game coming out of a break, the Blue Devils needed a monster performance from Jahlil Okafor to get by. Playing their first game in 11 days, it was more of the same Monday.
No. 2 Duke staved off a scrappy—and talented—Toledo squad, beating the Rockets 86-69 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Okafor owned the paint all night for the Blue Devils, putting up a career-high 27 points and adding eight rebounds.
"That was a heck of a win for us," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We started off strong, I thought—no matter what you say—I think these guys, because of the break and that they think something's going to be easy. We got off 18-4 and then we couldn't score. Part of that was their good defense and our throwing the ball away. It was an even half."
In a first half filled with mistakes, the Chicago native was one of the lone bright spots in the first half for the Blue Devils (11-0), as he scored Duke's first six points. The Blue Devils jumped out to an 18-4 lead behind their big man's play and seemed to be well on their way to an easy victory.
Okafor was able to draw two early fouls on Rocket center Nathan Boothe, as Duke went to the favorable inside matchup early and often. Boothe was unable to guard the Chicago native when the two were on the floor and his backup—Zach Garber—also struggled to slow down the Blue Devil center, as both defended him one-on-one opposed than the double teams Okafor has become accustomed to seeing this season. Okafor would end the half with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and five rebounds.
"Going into the game, I was expecting to be played man-to-man," Okafor said. "[My teammates] just told me to dominate and do what I do. So it was kind of fun playing against single-man coverage."
But the freshman's dominance could not mask all the Blue Devils the issues, namely those on the defensive end.
After making just two of its first 10 shots, Toledo (7-5) started to pick it up, finishing the half 14-of-24, including a run during which the Rockets scored on 10 of their final 12 possessions.
Trailing 18-4 early, Toledo reeled off five straight points to cut the lead to nine at the under-12 media timeout. The Rockets got the lead down to five on a Justin Drummond layup. Duke managed to answer on the next possession, as Tyus Jones found Okafor for an alley-oop that broke a lengthy Duke scoring drought. The center would follow that up with a jumper to push the lead to 22-13.
But Toledo would not go away.
Three-straight baskets from the Rockets' leading scorer Julius Brown—who would finish the game with 19 points—cut the lead to six with four minutes remaining and the Rockets would continue to answer the Blue Devils, getting the deficit cut back down to five with 2:19 left on a jumper from J.D. Weatherspoon. Duke went into the locker room having not hit a field goal in the final four minutes of play and in dire need of a better second-half performance.
"We definitely got off to a good start and we definitely did let up," Okafor said. "I wasn't expecting us to let up. We had a bunch of defensive lapses that let them get back into the game."
Duke started the second half the same way it opened the first half, only this time, the Blue Devils kept it up past the opening minutes.
With the score at 47-44 with 17:59 remaining in the game, the Blue Devils went to Okafor and he delivered in the form of nine straight points. This included a pair of monster dunks on back-to-back possessions that brought the crowd to its feet and got head coach Mike Krzyzewski to slap the floor, driving the Cameron Crazies into a frenzy and giving Duke all the momentum for the remainder of the contest.
"I'm glad I could slap it and get up," Krzyzewski said. "I broke my watch. I did some Wojo things today, so I better be careful. Or maybe that's good. I still want to win. Badly, I want to win badly. So my team deserves emotion and they got it and gave it back."
From that point on, the Blue Devil lead would not dip below eight and Duke would receive some quality play from its bench, as Rasheed Sulaimon and Marshall Plumlee provided a spark on the defensive end. Plumlee also turned in one of the night's highlight plays, as he snagged an inbounds pass in mid-air and slammed it home with one hand.
Senior guard Quinn Cook finished as Duke's second-highest scorer with 20 points. Tyus Jones also provided a second-half push, as 13 of his 15 points came in the final 20 minutes, with nine coming from the free throw line.
"In the second half, we hit them hard and they hit us hard in those first four minutes. Then our defense kind of took over. I thought our defense was outstanding," Krzyzewski said. "We played really well in the second half. Since the Wisconsin game, that was the best 20 minutes that we've played."
The Blue Devils will have a quick turnaround, as they take the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Wofford Dec. 31 at 3 p.m. to close their nonconference slate.
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