NCAA News Wire
College basketball top-25 roundup: Okafor scores 27 in Duke win
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
Freshman center Jahlil Okafor scored a season-high 27 points to help No. 2 Duke beat Toledo 86-69 on Monday night in Durham, N.C.
Quinn Cook added a season-best 20 points and freshman Tyus Jones had 15 points and eight assists for Duke (11-0), which showed some rust while playing its first game since Dec. 18.
Duke burst out to an early 14-point lead, but Toledo chipped away and trailed by just three points with 18 minutes left in the game. Okafor then scored all the points in a 7-0 Duke run that provided a comfortable 10-point margin.
Okafor was 12 of 15 from the field while reaching the 20-point mark for the fourth time in six games. He also had eight rebounds.
Julius Brown scored 19 for Toledo (7-5).
No. 11 Texas 66, Rice 55
Freshman Myles Turner scored 16 points in his first career start to help Texas rebound from its home loss to Stanford by beating Rice in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns struggled again for a while, and Rice (3-8) trailed by just two points with four minutes left before Texas scored nine straight points to avoid another upset.
Forward Jonathan Holmes, who scored 12 points, converted a key three-point shot with 2:50 remaining to put Texas (11-2) ahead by six.
Forward Seth Gearhart led Rice with a career-best 24 points.
