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Okafor fuels Duke in win over Toledo

Dec 30, 2014 - 6:19 AM Durham, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Jahlil Okafor scored a career-high 27 points with eight rebounds to lead the second-ranked Duke Blue Devils to an 86-69 win over the Toledo Rockets on Monday.

Duke (11-0), which has won 39 straight games at home, took the floor for the first time since a 66-56 win over UConn on Dec. 18.

Quinn Cook chipped in with 20 points for the Blue Devils, while Tyus Jones tallied 15 points with eight assists and Justise Winslow added nine points.

"We felt this would be a great game for us to get ready for the ACC," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They could beat us. They had a chance to beat us. They didn't disappoint. They were terrific."

Julius Brown had 19 points to lead the Rockets (7-5), who saw their five-game winning streak halted. Justin Drummond and J.D. Weatherspoon each had 14 in the loss.

"I think today our guys got better in some areas," Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "Overall, some things to be proud of and other things we're disappointed about."

Okafor scored the first six points for Duke and had eight total during an 18-4 run to open the game.

The Blue Devils went cold from there, going over four minutes without a basket as Toledo crept back. During the dry spell, the Rockets netted nine points to close the gap to five with under 10 minutes left in the half.

Duke regained some control as Okafor hit consecutive shots to break the scoring drought, but Toledo hung around. Drummond's 3-pointer and Brown's jumper cut the deficit to 41-37 at the break.

A Brown 3 trimmed the halftime deficit to three, then Okafor took over. After he hit a free throw, Winslow found him with a bounce pass for a transition dunk. Amile Jefferson picked up a steal on the following Rockets possession and proceeded to hit Okafor up court for another easy flush. Okafor capped off his little 7-0 flurry with a reverse layup coming off a Winslow miss that pushed the lead to 10 prior to the first media timeout.

Jones' four-point play later in the half capped a 9-2 spurt that made it a 68-53 game and Duke had no problem closing out the upset-minded Rockets from there.

Game Notes

Duke wraps up its non-conference schedule with a home meeting against Wofford on Wednesday ... The Blue Devils have won 115 straight at home against non- conference opponents ... Duke is now 2-0 in the all-time series, taking an 82-54 decision in the first meeting in 2004 ... The Blue Devils never trailed in this game. They have only trailed for 5:01 for the entire season ... Duke shot 55.8 percent from the floor and held Toledo to 47.5 percent shooting.