HALFTIME: Duke 41, Pittsburgh 25

At the half, No. 5 Duke leads Pittsburgh 41-25 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, as the Blue Devils seem to be well on their way to securing win No. 999 for head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Junior Amile Jefferson picked up where he left off against Louisville—he scored a season-high 19 points in Saturday's win against the Cardinals—scoring the first four points of the game. Freshman Tyus Jones leads the team with 10 points thus far and Rasheed Sulaimon is close behind with nine..

But the story of the game—much like it was in Saturday's game—has been the Blue Devils defense. Krzyzewski implemented a 2-3 zone against the Cardinals and Duke has stuck with that approach tonight. Duke jumped out to a 7-0 lead before allowing a Jamel Artis layup to fall with 17:28 left in the half to put the Panthers on the board. Despite finally finding the bottom of the net, Pittsburgh is still shooting just 37 percent from the field.

On the other end of the court, the Panthers doubled freshman center and Duke's leading scorer Jahlil Okafor throughout the first half. But the 6-foot-11 center was able to see past the oncoming help defender's arms and dish out a team-high four assists.

Sulaimon has been the benefactor of several of those one-armed bullets and has the most of his time on the court, knocking down all three of his 3-point attempts. The Blue Devils as a team have owned the long-range shot, knocking down 7-of-14 to Pittsburgh's 0-of-3 clip.

There were not many in-game battles that the Cardinals won Saturday, but rebounding was one of them. The Blue Devils have taken notice through the first 20 minutes, as they dominated the Panthers on both the offensive and defensive glass, outrebounding them 9-1 early on. Pittsburgh has snagged a few off the boards since then but Duke still owns the glass with a 21-16 advantage.

Observations from the first half:

• Freshman Justise Winslow went down early on after landing hard on his right shoulder for the third-straight game. Winslow would prove to be alright, as he came back in the game and knocked down a corner three.
• Pittsburgh was not just doubling Okafor—the Panthers sent an extra man flying at Plumlee as well. MP3 sent the ball out to Tyus Jones who found Sulaimon in the left corner for a 3-pointer
• The Panthers were able to penetrate the Duke zone and get shots in the paint, but Pittsburgh left at least eight points on the table by taking the Louisville route and missing its open shots
• The scoring has come from everywhere for Duke tonight. Six Blue Devils are on the board
• Okafor has been silent for most of the first half with just six points. The Panthers have taken advantage on the defensive end, as they are outscoring the Blue Devils 18-12 in the paint.
• Free throw conversion has been an issue for Duke this year—outside of Jones and Cook, the other three Blue Devil starters all shoot less than 60 percent from the charity stripe. Tonight the problem has not been conversion so much as it has been getting to the line, as Duke has only attempted four free throws.