HALFTIME: Miami 35, Duke 31

CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Playing on just one day of rest for the second time in as many weeks, Duke is hanging around with a veteran Miami team as it searches for its first top-25 win of the season.

In a highly anticipated ACC matchup, the No. 24 Blue Devils trail the No. 15 Hurricanes 35-31 after one half of play at the BankUnited Center. Junior captain Matt Jones leads Duke with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting, but it has not been enough to counter Miami guards Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan, who have combined for 16 points and six assists thus far.

The Hurricanes showed off their offensive prowess from the opening tip, as Rodriguez lobbed the ball to McClellan for an alley-oop to get on the board first. Miami had all of the momentum in the opening minutes, going up 7-2 with 17:33 on the clock, but the Blue Devils found their stride soon after, scoring 12 unanswered points to take the lead and silence the Miami fans.

Back-to-back three pointers from Rodriguez helped the Hurricanes climb back from their deficit midway through the half. Miami regained the lead with 11:31 on the clock, though the Hurricanes were never able to establish any sort of comfortable buffer against Duke. After the Hurricanes took a 23-19 lead during a near-four minute Blue Devil scoring drought, a quick layup from freshman Brandon Ingram and contested jumper from sophomore Grayson Allen in less than a minute were enough to even the score once again.

In the final minutes of the half, the two sides traded points, but neither team could secure the lead for long. Back-to-back jumpers from Ja'quan Newton and Rodriguez gave Miami a 32-27 lead soon, and after Jones drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 57 seconds left in the half to cut the lead back to two, McClellon fired back with a trey of his own and extend the lead once again.

Here are some observations from the first half:

• The Hurricanes started out strong a looked to be pulling away after going up 7-2 in the first 2:30 minutes, but 10 unanswered points for the Blue Devils evened the score by the first media timeout.
• Duke freshman Luke Kennard got hot early at the BankUnited Center, putting up six points in a 1:20 span to regain the Blue Devil lead at the 15:22 mark.
• After not seeing the floor in Duke's win against N.C. State Saturday, freshman Chase Jeter got some time early in Monday's matchup.
• The Blue Devils suffered a 3:37 minute scoring drought with six minutes left in the half after making just 1-of-10 shots from the floor.
• Duke kept up with the hot-shooting Hurricanes in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 42.9 percent from the floor to Miami's 44.8 percent clip. But the Hurricanes outshot the Blue Devils from deep, draining 6-of-12 from beyond the arc to Duke's 3-of-11 start from downtown.
• New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is in attendance at tonight's game.