Wake Forest slows down Okafor, but teammates pick up the slack in ACC road opener

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Leave it to the 6-foot-10 head coach to devise a game plan to slow down Jahlil Okafor.

First-year Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning did more than his fair share of scoring as a talented big man at Kansas, averaging 24.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game to lead the Jayhawks to a national title in 1988. So when Duke's dominant freshman center came to his gym Wednesday night, Manning and his Demon Deacons did what many teams have tried—and failed—to do: employ an effective double-team.

"I couldn't get my rhythm, and after I had that first turnover [it kind of threw me off]," Okafor said.

Okafor has feasted down low when opponents have allowed him to go one-on-one, as he did in a 27-point performance against Toledo Dec. 29. The Chicago native had also dealt well with double-teams, firing cross-court passes to open teammates spread around the perimeter.

Wednesday's double-team was different. Manning used his forwards to play the initial defense on Okafor, then sent 6-foot-9, 255-pound forward Devin Thomas—who essentially plays center for Wake Forest—as the second defender when the freshman caught the ball.

The result—Okafor didn't attempt a shot until the 5:47 mark in the first half. He headed to the locker room with four points on two shots, having turned the ball over three times. Duke's lead at halftime was just five points.

"They did an interesting thing in guarding him behind with a four and then Thomas attacked from the five. They did just the opposite [of what other teams have done]," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It was a good game plan, obviously. The last two games now, we've seen different defenses and we're going to continue to see it."

Manning said his goal was for Okafor to see "a crowded house" whenever he got the ball. The defensive scheme also forced him to accept passes farther away from the basket, meaning the center was unable to simply turn and score utilizing his height advantage.

On the whole, the strategy's success continued into the final 20 minutes, as the Chicago native attempted just four more shots and the Demon Deacons surged to claim a two-point lead with 5:47 left. But the Blue Devils did a better job of running the offense through their big man in the second half after he received limited touches in the first half. Okafor got to the line six times, and demanded the ball with more urgency.

"[It was] just him wanting the ball more. He got better post position and he was hungrier, whether that was off rebounds or high-lows," sophomore guard Matt Jones said. "If [Okafor] has that mentality, nobody's going to stop him."

Okafor finished with 12 points, tying his season-low scoring output from the Connecticut game Dec. 18. But with so much of the defense's attention directed at the big man, plenty of his teammates stepped up to fill that void, most notably classmates Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones.

After the Demon Deacons scored the game's first six points, Winslow ignited the Blue Devils with a pair of emphatic rejections that led to transition opportunities. With 17:47 to play in the second half, the Houston native drained two of his three triples on consecutive possessions to swiftly break a 34-34 tie after Wake Forest erased the five-point halftime deficit. Winslow gave Duke its largest lead of the game with 15:01 to play on an alley-oop finish from Quinn Cook, and finished with a career-high 20 points.

Down the stretch, though, it was Jones who once again took center stage. The freshman floor general found Matt Jones for a lay-in with four minutes to go, and then scored the bucket that effectively sealed the game for the Blue Devils, an old-fashioned three-point play on a drive to put Duke up eight with 1:36 left.

Jones finished with just eight points—just shy of joining Winslow, Okafor, Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon in double-digits—but he saved his best for last, just as he did at the Champions Classic, when all of his 17 points came in the second half of a win against then-No. 18 Michigan State.

"That's how the game played out, I'm just feeling out the defense," Jones said of his play down the stretch Wednesday. "It just happened that I had the ball in my hands. I had to make a play."

When Wake Forest made its late run against the Blue Devils last March, Duke folded. Wednesday, even when their best player was kept under wraps for most of the evening, the Blue Devils found a way.

"We just refused to lose," Okafor said.