Starting the game on a 12-0 run, Duke looked like it might have a much more comfortable win against Wake Forest than it did in Winston Salem, N.C., two months ago.
After three minutes of Grayson Allen, it was all but certain.
The freshman came off the bench at the 13:37 mark in the first half and scored 11 points in a 2:59 span to put the Demon Deacons down 26 as the Blue Devils cruised to a 94-51 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Senior Night. The 6-foot-4 wing capped off his run by drawing a foul on a corner 3-pointer and converted the free throw to put Duke up 31-5 just 10 minutes into the game.
“He does it in practice every day,” senior Quinn Cook said of Allen. “For him to get that game confidence makes us a different team because [opponents] have to get ready for a quick scorer who can come off the bench. He brings a definitely different dynamic to our team.”
After taking a four-minute breather, Allen came back scoring at a slower pace—but only slightly. In the final five minutes, he scored off free throws, jumpers and even a tip-in to break his previous career high of 18 points before the halftime horn sounded. The freshman had outscored the Demon Deacons 19-15 at that point and finished the night with 27 in 24 minutes.
Although Allen’s scoring helped the Blue Devils (27-3, 14-3 in the ACC) build a 20-plus point buffer that they would keep the rest of the game, all eight Duke players who saw first-half playing time got into the scoring column.
Moreover, the Blue Devils—who average 7.1 steals per game—had nine in the first half and forced Wake Forest (13-17, 5-12) into 15 turnovers in the period.
“Part of the turnovers was us,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Miller-McIntyre pushes the ball better than anybody in the league, so we went to our 2-2-1, three-quarter court [defense] mainly so that when we got it, we could get it on the run.… They never really got transition and that’s a big part of their game.”
Everything seemed to be going the Blue Devils’ way, and with the clock winding down, point guard Tyus Jones pulled up from well beyond the arc to drain a triple and draw the foul, sending his team into the locker room with a 37-point lead.
Allen had a quieter second half, scoring nine more, but sophomore Matt Jones picked up the slack, scoring 11 of Duke’s first 13 points in a little less than four minutes. The guard tied his previous career high of 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
“The way they were playing us, it was an opportunity for me to have openings, and I just tried to take advantage of it, and ultimately we got the win,” Jones said.
On a night of career highs for Allen and Jones, freshman Jahlil Okafor scored fewer than 10 points for the first time all year, but the Blue Devils didn't need a big night from their star freshman.
Despite the dominant performance, Duke faced a few scary moments when both Amile Jefferson and Justise Winslow left the game briefly with ankle issues. Both returned, and Krzyzewski noted that the team trainer said the injuries did not appear to be serious. And even with the injury, Winslow stuffed the stat sheet, scoring 13 points and recorded seven rebounds, six assists and six steals.
Playing his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Cook made sure not to miss out on the action. Duke's lone scholarship senior knocked down a corner trey during the opening 12-0 run, sank a crowd-pleasing up-and-under down the stretch and finished the night with 13 points on 3-of-7 shooting from long-range.
After defeating the Demon Deacons by just eight points in their first matchup Jan. 7, Cook’s teammates wanted to make sure they gave their captain a resounding send-off.
“We just knew we owed Wake Forest,” Matt Jones said. “We played them earlier in the year and did not have a great defensive game, or a great game period, so we just tired to redeem ourselves.”
Duke will close the regular season Saturday at 9 p.m. in Chapel Hill against No. 19 North Carolina.
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