CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jahlil Okafor already has Austin Rivers and Jabari Parker beat.
The last two freshman phenoms to attend Duke were out of the NCAA Tournament before they could enjoy it, on the short end of major No. 15/No. 2 upsets.
Top-seeded Duke was never truly in danger of history repeating itself Friday night, overwhelming Robert Morris, 85-56, in an NCAA Tournament South Region second-round contest at Time Warner Cable Arena.
Okafor, the 6-foot-11 big man from Chicago, had his usual productive offensive evening, towering over the Colonials for 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, showing the polish and back-to-the-basket moves that have him in the running to be the first player taken in June's NBA Draft
There was a brief moment midway through the second half when the Blue Devils (30-4) were sweating, when you could hear and feel worry from the pro-Duke crowd.
A 20-point lead has been shaved to 10. Robert Morris (20-15) wasn't playing like a 16-seed and the massively-favored Blue Devils weren't performing like one of the few teams that could topple mighty Kentucky.
Seventy-eight seconds later, that feeling was gone, a rapid-fire 8-0 run extinguishing any hopes for the Northeast Conference champions.
Justice Winslow, one of Duke's three highly acclaimed freshman, started the spurt with a left-wing 3-pointer. He followed that with a layup, darting past the Colonials as if they were stuck in quicksand, and set up a Quinn Cook 3-pointer. Soon, the lead was back above 20, grew to 30, and Duke was back in cruise control.
"I hope it gives those guys confidence as freshmen, get that good game under their belt," Cook, a senior used to this stage, said. "We'll be back on Sunday."
Other than the brief run by the Colonials, it was a 40-minute highlight reel for the top seed in the South Region. Cook, the unquestioned Duke leader who scored a game-high 22 points, was at the forefront of the festivities. He sank his first four shot attempts, all 3-pointers, and capped it with the play of the evening: running down a looping pass from freshman Tyus Jones just under the basket, and before flying out of bounds, flipped it in off the glass, just out of the reach of Robert Morris forward Lucky Jones.
"This is our 30th win," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "[Okafor has] led us to a fabulous season and hopefully he'll lead us further into this tournament."
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