Durham, N.C. -- Freshman Jahlil Okafor scored 24 points and Amile Jefferson added 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead fourth-ranked Duke to a 93-54 victory over Furman in front of a crowd of 9,314 on Wednesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils shot 57.6% from the floor and outscored the Paladins in the paint, 54-18, to improve to 6-0 on the season.  Furman, led by 13 points from Kendrec Ferrara and 12 points from Stephen Croone, dropped to 1-3.

"I thought our kids played hard and competed," said Paladin coach Niko Medved.  "We were able to get some good looks at the basket, especially in the second half, when we reversed the ball.  They're just a very good basketball team and their size and length in the paint is obviously tough for us to deal with."

Jefferson hit all six of his first half shots to score 12 points in the opening 20 minutes as Duke opened a 50-22 advantage at the break.  Okafor keyed a 24-8 Blue Devil run early in the second half with eight points to propel Duke to a 74-32 lead with 11:25 to play when Rasheed Sulaimon buried a three-pointer.

Ferrara, 5-for-11 from the field, tallied 11 of his team-high 13 points in the second half, including a pair of three-pointers.  Croone connected on 4-of-4 free throws to reach 12 points while Kris Acox grabbed a team-best five rebounds.

Despite being out-rebounded 40-27, Furman pulled down 10 offensive boards and got 24 points from its bench.

Duke held Furman to 33.9% shooting and capitalized on 14 Paladin turnovers by netting 26 points off of turnovers.  Matt Jones scored 13 points and Quinn Cook added 11 to join Okafor and Jefferson in double figures.

The Paladins return to action on Monday night when they travel to Lynchburg, Va., to face the Liberty Flames.  Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game be seen live on ESPN3, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and locally in the Greenville Area on WYFF 4.2 (This TV).  Other local channels carrying the game include Carolina Mountain Cable (274), Charter Cable (194), Chesnee Communications (702), Compas (142), Elberton Net Broadband TV     (97), Family View Cablevision (68-11), Hart Cable (106), Highland Cable     (4 & 4.12), and West Carolina Communication (22).
                
Fans can also listen to the Liberty game on the Furman IMG Sports Network on flagship station WGOG 96.3 FM and Fox Sports 1440 AM with play-by-play voice Dan Scott and color commentator Ron Smith delivering the action.  The audio broadcast will be available by logging onto Tunein.com  Links for the broadcast and live statistics will be available at FurmanPaladins.com


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information