Duke is playing in its first game in 11 days and the Blue Devils have found themselves in a dogfight.
No. 2 Duke leads Toledo 41-37 after 20 minutes of play from Cameron Indoor Stadium, but the Rockets have continued to surge, making 10 of their last 12 field goals to make things interesting in Durham.
One of the lone bright spots for the Blue Devils has been Jahlil Okafor, as he scored Duke's first six points and has been a problem for Toledo all night.
Okafor was able to draw two early fouls on Rocket center Nathan Boothe, as Duke went to favorable inside matchup early and often. Boothe was unable to guard the Chicago native when the two were on the floor and his backup—Zach Garber—also struggled to slow down the Blue Devil center. Okafor would end the half with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and five rebounds.
As much as Okafor dominated, the Rockets managed to hang around thanks to the team play that has been their mantra all season.
After trailing 18-4, Toledo reeled off five straight points to cut the lead to nine at the under-12 media timeout. The Rockets got the lead down to five on a Justin Drummond layup, but that's as close as Okafor would allow them to get at the time. On the next possession, Tyus Jones found Okafor for an alley-oop that broke a lengthy Duke scoring drought. The center would follow that up with a jumper to push the lead to 22-13.
But Toledo would not go away.
Three straight baskets from leading scorer Julius Brown cut the lead to six with four minutes remaining and the Rockets would continue to answer the Blue Devils, getting the deficit cut back down to five with 2:19 left on a jumper from J.D. Weatherspoon.
All five Toledo starters average at least 9.7 points per game and seem to be on their way to hitting that mark, as all but Boone have at least five points in the opening half. The Rockets' ability to score from every position—except the center spot so far—has kept them in the contest.
Here are some observations from the first half:
- Duke went the final four minutes without hitting a field goal.
- After opening the game shooting less than 20 percent from the floor, the Rockets heated up and are now hitting 47 percent of their shots compared to Duke's 53 percent clip.
- Although the Blue Devils hold an advantage in the paint—outscoring the Rockets 24-18—they are barely out-rebounding Toledo, as Duke holds a slight 20-17 advantage. Justise Winslow has been quiet on the boards, grabbing just one in his 14 minutes of play
- Toledo has all the momentum right now, scoring on its last eight possessions. Duke will need to make some real adjustments on the defensive end coming out of the locker room if it wants to get out of this scrap with a perfect record intact.
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