HALFTIME: Duke 52, Wake Forest 15

Nearly two months after having to squeak out a single-digit victory in Winston-Salem, Duke has wasted no time pulling away from Wake Forest at home on Senior night, entering the half up 52-15.

Duke started out the night on a 12-0 run before Demon Deacon first-year head coach Danny Manning called timeout to settle his players.

For a moment, it seemed like it might have worked as Wake Forest’s Mitchell Wilbekin notched five points to put the Demon Deacons on the board. From there, however, Wake Forest went scoreless for the next five minutes.

And for the Blue Devils, Grayson Allen took over. The freshman came in to score 11 points in a four-minute stretch and put Duke up 31-5 by converting a four-point play with 9:58 left in the half. Although he slowed down a little in his second time on the court, Allen added eight more points to beat his career high of 18 against Presbyterian and push his total to 19 points. He did it in just nine minutes.

Fellow freshman Justise Winslow provided a big spark for Duke's transition game with three steals and 10 points. Tyus Jones added three steals of his own, and as the clock wound down hit an and-one three pointer from well beyond the arc to push the lead to 37.

Observations from the first half:

• After missing their first four shots from the field, the Demon Deacons earned a trip to the free throw line thanks to a flagrant foul by Blue Devil Jahlil Okafor. Wake Forest's Devin Thomas could not connect, however, extending the scoreless streak.
  
• In his first meeting with the Demon Deacons, Jahlil Okafor scored just 12 points—tied for his second-lowest this season—and coughed up five turnovers. The freshman has three turnovers tonight already.
  
• The Demon Deacons, who committed 11 turnovers in the last matchup with Duke, had 16 in the first half tonight.
• There was plenty of scoring to go around as all eight scholarship Blue Devils got on the board in the half.
  
• Duke already passed its steals-per-game average of 7.1 by recording nine in the first half.