Jahlil Okafor sprains ankle in first half of Duke-UNC, returns to play career-high 41 minutes

Duke's 92-90 thrilling overtime win against rival North Carolina could be remembered for more than the Blue Devil victory.

Freshman center Jahlil Okafor silenced the raucous home crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday night when he fell to the court with 3:40 left in the first half after spraining his ankle.

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The dominant 6-foot-11 center landed on Joel James' foot after attempting a hook shot, exited for almost three minutes after limping off the court with the help of teammates Quinn Cook and Sean Obi and returned to play a career-high 41 minutes.

But despite the Chicago native's 12-point, 13-rebound effort against the Tar Heels, his status going forward remains uncertain as Duke prepares for Clemson Saturday at 4 p.m.

"We'll see what happens, hopefully he'll be able to [play Saturday]," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Sometimes you can play the night of the game, because your adrenaline and everything is moving, especially for big guys. We'll see if he's going to be ready."

Okafor is widely regarded as the most talented college basketball player in the country, but his quick recovery from the scary spill impressed even his head coach, who said like everyone else he was obviously deeply concerned when his big man went down and was attended to by athletic trainer Jose Fonseca.

"[I was] so concerned because he's special. He's truly special," Krzyzewski said. "I was shocked that he wanted to come back in during the first half, just mentally for him to get over it right then. At halftime, they were working on him like crazy."

"We can't practice tomorrow anyway," Krzyzewski said. "We'll just go through a preview of Clemson. We'll try to get him a little bit of rest. I would think he's going to play, but I don't know it."