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No. 2 Duke pulls away to beat Wake Forest

Jan 8, 2015 - 5:35 AM Winston-Salem, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Freshman Justise Winslow scored a career-high 20 points and No. 2 Duke pulled away down the stretch for a 73-65 win over Wake Forest on Wednesday night.

After trailing for a total of 6 minutes and 13 seconds in its first 13 games, Duke found itself behind by two points with under five minutes remaining.

But Quinn Cook's three-point play sparked a 9-2 burst that gave the Duke the lead for good. It was part of an overall run of 16-4 by the Blue Devils (14-0, 2-0 ACC).

ACC scoring leader Jahlil Okafor had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Cook also scored 12 in Duke's tightest final of the season.

The Blue Devils, who are 14-0 for the seventh time under Mike Krzyzewski, had won each of their first 13 games by double digits, a school record.

"We have a lot of young guys (and) playing at this level of intensity in a conference game on the road is something that they had not experienced," said Krzyzewski. "We won a huge game at Wisconsin, and that's not the same. I'm not saying Wisconsin is a bad team; they're pretty good.

"(But) there's a sense of urgency with every ACC game that you can't manufacture, you have to experience it. That was really good for our team."

Devin Thomas had 24 points to lead Wake Forest (8-8, 0-3) and Codi Miller- McIntyre scored 13.

The Demon Deacons, coming off an 85-76 loss to No. 5 Louisville on Sunday, hosted back-to-back games against top-five teams for the first time in program history.

"We lost. You compete to win, that's the bottom line," said Wake Forest coach Danny Manning. "We have to find ways to get the desired result that we want. It doesn't matter who we're playing, it doesn't matter where we're playing, every time we step out on the court, we want to win."

Manning's team forced Duke into a timeout after Thomas' steal led to a Miller- McIntyre dunk at the other end to draw them within two points with 7 1/2 minutes left.

Miller-McIntyre's three-point play with 6:04 remaining gave Wake Forest its first lead since 8-6 in the first half.

It was the first meeting between the teams since Wake Forest upset then-No. 4 Duke 82-72 last March 5 in Winston-Salem to snap an eight-game losing streak in the series.

The Blue Devils made their last five field goals in this one to avoid another upset.

Earlier, Wake Forest opened the game on a 6-0 run, Duke's largest deficit of the season. But Winslow scored nine points in the first half to help the Blue Devils take a 32-27 lead into halftime.

Game Notes

It was the 242nd meeting between the teams, the most-played ACC series of all time. Duke leads 164-78 ... The Blue Devils are 120-18 when ranked No. 2 in the AP poll ... Duke goes on the road again to play North Carolina State on Sunday ... Wake Forest hosts Georgia Tech on Saturday.