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Game Grades: Duke Blue Devils Rally Late For Dramatic Win

By Jacob Rude

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MVP: Tyus. Jones. It is unreal that this kid is a freshman. He single-handedly saved the Duke Blue Devils tonight with a huge 8-2 run on his own to close the second half and force overtime. Seriously, this kid had 14 points in the second half and overtime. In the biggest rivalry in sports. As a freshman.

LVP: Mike Krzyzewski. Yeah, I said it. The GOAT among college basketball coaches had a questionable decision tonight to NOT zone the North Carolina Tar Heels. For a team so bad at shooting and one that was killing Duke down low most of the night against a noticeably hobbled Jahlil Okafor, Coach K stuck with a man-to-man defense and, if not for Tyus Jones‘ heroics, would have suffered an embarrassing defeat.

Stat of the Night: 16-11. You could point to the rebounds, which is a fair stat to look at, but the turnovers kept North Carolina in the game early on and nearly cost Duke the game down the stretch.

The Starters

JAHLIL OKAFOR. B+. <strong>41 min, 6-11 FG, 0-6 FT, 12 PTS, 13 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 5 TO</strong><p>The consensus #1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft suffered a scary ankle injury, but powered through it. He was notably hobbled in the second half which hindered his play, but adrenaline took over in overtime as he had a couple huge buckets.</p>. C. Duke Blue Devils

A++.  <strong> 43 min, 7-16 FG, 2-5 3P, 6-7 FT, 22 PTS, 7 REB, 8 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 6 TO<br /></strong><p>What can you say about this kid? I mean, seriously, he’s a teenager who just played in the biggest annual regular season game in all of sports and all he did was nearly mess around and get a triple-double.</p>. PG. Duke Blue Devils. TYUS JONES

B.  <strong> 45 min, 7-15 FG, 6-9 3P, 2-4 FT, 22 PTS, 4 REB, 3 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 3 TO</strong><p>First-half <strong><a href=. PG. Duke Blue Devils. QUINN COOK

Duke Blue Devils. AMILE JEFFERSON. B. <strong>29 min, 5-7 FG, 3-6 FT, 13 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 6 BLK, 1 TO</strong><p><strong><a href=. PF

<strong>29 min, 6-10 FG, 1-1 3P, 3-6 FT, 16 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 1 TO</strong><p><strong><a href=. SF. Duke Blue Devils. JUSTISE WINSLOW. A

The Bench

Duke Blue Devils. MATT JONES. B-.  <strong> 27 min, 2-4 FG, 1-1 3P, 0-0 FT, 5 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 0 TO</strong><p>The biggest beneficiary of <strong><a href=. SF

*Both Marshall Plumlee and Grayson Allen played in the game, but saw just seven and four minutes, respectively, far too little time to grade them on.

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