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Parker leads No. 8 Duke past UCLA

Dec 20, 2013 - 7:06 AM New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Jabari Parker poured in 23 points with 10 rebounds to lead No. 8 Duke to an 80-63 win over UCLA on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

Rodney Hood and Quinn Cook scored 14 points apiece, with Cook getting a career-high eight steals in the win.

Amile Jefferson and Rasheed Sulaimon contributed 11 and eight points, respectively, off the bench for Duke (9-2), winners of three straight.

The Bruins (9-2) were led by David Wear, who scored 16 points and went 4-of-4 on 3-pointers. Kyle Anderson nearly had a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. He also had five steals in the losing effort.

Jordan Adams, UCLA's leading scorer, finished with 10 points on just 4-of-10 shooting.

When speaking of Parker's early season success, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "Well he's played 11 games and he's played them very well. The main area he needs to work is defense. He is an outstanding player but he can become better."

The teams, who have 15 national titles between them, were tied 37-37 at the half. Duke scored the first five points to open the second with Parker hitting a 3 and Cook converting a mid-range jumper.

Wear kept UCLA afloat early in the stanza, scoring the team's first eight points and tied the game at 45 after a 12-foot jumper from the corner.

The Blue Devils then used a 16-4 surge to take a double-digit advantage with under 12 minutes to play. Hood had two 3s during the run and Parker added a triple along with an emphatic dunk in transition to help the Blue Devils to a 61-49 lead.

From that point, UCLA got as close as eight but the Blue Devils pulled away with an 11-2 run to end the game.

"That's Duke's signature defense," said Anderson in regards to the pressure UCLA saw throughout the night. "That's what they want to do, we fell into it but it is something that we (have) to improve on."

The Bruins trailed 18-8 in the first half before Anderson scored seven points during an 18-5 that gave them the lead. Bryce Alford hit a 3 to give UCLA a 24-23 advantage and Zach LeVine capping the run with a fast-break dunk.

Cook tied the game with a 3, but Levine and Alford followed with back-to-back 3s to retake the lead for UCLA.

The see-saw affair continued as Parker led a 9-2 burst with a 3 from the top of the key and later recovered the ball out of a scrum and passed it up to Hood, who capped it with an uncontested dunk with 1:27 to go in the first.

Wear put an end to Duke's momentum with a 3 from the far corner for a 37-35 lead. Jefferson's layup with 28 seconds left tied the game heading into halftime.

Game Notes

UCLA shot 6-of-10 (60 percent) from beyond the arc in first half ... Duke is now 10-6 all time against UCLA and 8-1 under Krzyzewski ... The Blue Devils attempted a season-high 32 shots from 3-point range ... Duke will not play again until Dec. 28 when it hosts Eastern Michigan ... UCLA welcomes Weber State on Sunday.