No. 9 Duke rolls past Eastern Michigan, 82-59


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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Jabari Parker scored 23 points and No. 9 Duke beat Eastern Michigan 82-59 on Saturday.

Andre Dawkins added 20 points with a season-high six 3-pointers as a late replacement for an ill Rodney Hood in the starting lineup.

Rasheed Sulaimon added 13 points and came up with the key hustle play during the decisive second-half run that helped the Blue Devils (10-2) polish off their fourth straight win.

They shot 40 percent against Eastern Michigan's tough matchup zone defense with 10 3-pointers, built a 47-32 advantage on the boards and wrapped up the pre-ACC home schedule with their 101st straight nonconference win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Mike Talley scored 20 points to lead the Eagles (7-4). They went 6 minutes between field goals during the critical stretch when Duke pulled away.

The Blue Devils led just 43-35 with 15 minutes left before breaking the game open with a 15-1 run.

Quinn Cook and Hood hit 3-pointers roughly 25 seconds apart before Sulaimon's key hustle play.

He had Eagles guard J.R. Sims trapped near midcourt when Sims tried to spike the ball off Sulaimon and out of bounds _ but the ball instead rolled down the sideline toward the Duke basket.

Sulaimon scooped it up, was fouled hard by Sims _ who received a flagrant foul _ on his way to the basket and hit the ensuing two free throws to stretch the lead to 53-35 with 13:12 left.

Dawkins' 3-pointer roughly 3 minutes later gave the Blue Devils their first 20-point lead at 56-36. Amile Jefferson _ who started the run with a free throw with 14:28 left _ hit a foul shot to push it to 58-36 with 10:25 remaining, and they pulled away from there.

Jefferson finished with a career-high 14 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who have had at least one 20-point scorer in every game this season. It's the first time they've done it since the eventual national champion 2000-01 team, which accomplished it in its first 17 games.

And 10 of those 20-point games belong to Parker, who has led or shared the team's scoring lead eight times.

He scored 14 of Duke's 37 points in the first half after hitting six of his first 11 shots, including a pair of thunderous alley-oop dunks.

That helped make up for an off day for Hood, who finished with eight points on 3-of-8 shooting with eight rebounds while playing through what team officials said was an unspecified illness. Hood was announced as a starter but briefly left the court before tipoff and was replaced by Dawkins before the opening tip.

This was the first meeting between the schools since the 1996 NCAA tournament, when the Earl Boykins-led Eagles upset Duke in the first round.

And for a while, they looked plenty capable of knocking off Duke again.

Early on, Eastern Michigan frustrated the Blue Devils with that matchup zone that held them to 3-of-14 shooting from 3-point range in the first half.

Duke didn't take its first double-figure lead until the 4-minute mark of the half when Hood's stickback dunk of a missed jumper by Parker made it 32-21.

Karrington Ward scored 11 points and Sims finished with 10 for Eastern Michigan.

___

Follow Joedy McCreary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joedyap

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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