Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Eastern Michigan isn't undefeated against Duke anymore.
The Eagles simply couldn't keep the ninth-ranked Blue Devils off the boards in an 82-59 loss Saturday.
This was just the second meeting between the schools _ the Earl Boykins-led Eagles upset Duke in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament _ and Eastern Michigan's struggles on the glass led to a lopsided loss in the rematch 18 years later.
Duke outrebounded the Eagles 47-32 and had 20 offensive rebounds.
"It's important _ the shot goes up, we have to rebound the ball," Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy said. "I thought we did a great job of showing and forcing them into some contested shots. But we gave up 20 offensive rebounds.
"To be successful, ultimately, the way we play, we have to rebound the basketball and we didn't do a great job of that tonight."
Mike Talley scored 20 points to lead the Eagles (7-4), while Karrington Ward scored 11 points and Sims finished with 10.
Eastern Michigan kept this a game into the second half, but went 6 minutes between field goals during the critical stretch when Duke pulled away.
For Duke, Jabari Parker scored 23 points and Andre Dawkins had season highs of 20 points and six 3-pointers.
With Rodney Hood fighting an illness that he said caused him to flee the court and throw up, Dawkins was summoned from the bench to make a surprise start moments before the opening tip.
And the fifth-year senior who sat out last season sure made the most of it.
He finished with his highest point total since scoring 22 and hitting six 3s in a win at Florida State in 2012.
"It's a little bit different coming off, not playing for a year, and trying to play at this level," Dawkins said. "So, it took some time, but I'm getting there. But it's still a process."
Rasheed Sulaimon added 13 for Duke (10-2) and came up with the key hustle play during the decisive second-half run that helped them polish off their fourth straight win.
Duke shot 40 percent against Eastern Michigan's tough zone defense while hitting 10 3-pointers, and wrapped up the pre-ACC home schedule with its 101st straight nonconference win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"We knew they played zone, so we were going to get open looks on the offensive end, but we really wanted to focus on stopping them," Dawkins said. "It was a big task to try and stop them but I think we did a pretty good job."
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 that's happened at Duke since the eventual national champion 2000-01 team did it in its first 17 games.
Ten of those 20-point games now belong to Parker, who led or shared the team's scoring lead for the eighth time.
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 averages 18.5 points but finished with eight on 3-of-8 shooting. He also had eight rebounds while playing through his unspecified illness.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he received an IV at halftime.
"He wasn't the same guy," Krzyzewski said.
___
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.)
