HALFTIME: Duke 32, Wake Forest 27

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—After 20 minutes of play at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the No. 2 Blue Devils hold a slim 32-27 advantage against Danny Manning's Demon Deacons. Freshman Justise Winslow led Duke with nine points in the first half, and junior Rasheed Sulaimon added seven off the bench.

The best recipe for winning on the road is to take the home crowd out of it early, and the Blue Devils certainly did not accomplish that in the early going. Duke stumbled out of the gates as Wake Forest scored the first six points of the contest. Winslow and Amile Jefferson would respond, however, as the freshman sent back a pair of Demon Deacon shots emphatically and Jefferson scored a pair of early buckets.

That initial rebuttal quickly became a 12-2 Duke run as Tyus Jones and Sulaimon splashed home a pair of treys. A few moments later, back-to-back triples from Quinn Cook and Winslow upped the lead to 20-12.

Jahlil Okafor was held largely in check in the first 20 minutes. The freshman didn't seem to get post position inside on Wake Forest's Devin Thomas and attempted just two shots in the first half. On the other end, Thomas seemed to relish his chance to go one-on-one with Okafor, pouring in a game-high 10 points before intermission.

Here are some observations from the first half:

• Of chief concern for head coach Mike Krzyzewski has to be turnovers. Duke gave the ball away 10 times in the opening 20 minutes, and also tossed up a pair of airballs from behind the arc.
• The Blue Devils weren't shy about shooting from long range, launching 11 3-pointers in the first half.
• The officials swallowed the whistle in the middle of the first half, as the teams played through the under-12 TV timeout with no stoppage of play until the 7:55 mark, when Sulaimon drew a charge to send the teams to the under-8 timeout. During that long stretch, most of the Blue Devil first unit was kept waiting on the sidelines before they could check back in.
• Okafor finished the first half with four points on just 1-of-2 from the field and did not attempt his first shot of the game until the 5:45 mark of the first half. However, the freshman had an effective half on the glass, pulling in nine rebounds.
• The Demon Deacons are playing their second top-five opponent in four nights. Wake Forest hung with Louisville Sunday night, eventually losing, 85-76.