Clemson vs. Duke: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

No Jahlil Okafor, no problem for the Duke Blue Devils. Even without their elite center, the Blue Devils were able to dominate the Clemson Tigers at home and earn an impressive 78-56 victory.

The highly touted freshman injured his ankle in Wednesday's overtime win over North Carolina, although his status going forward was questionable. Shortly before the game, though, the team announced that Okafor wouldn't be active against the Tigers, per ESPN.com.

While this was likely a concern for some, Justise Winslow's thoughts earlier in the week seemed prophetic, via Stephen Schramm of the Fayetteville Observer:

The fellow freshman was dominant in the win, totaling 20 points, 13 rebounds and four steals. Much of his production came right away as the squad was able to take an early lead. Laura Keeley of the Charlotte Observer noted Winslow's ability to come through when the team needed him:

Quinn Cook ended up being the leading scorer in the game with 27 points, while Tyus Jones added 11 points, nine assists and four steals. Also coming through with a career performance was Grayson Allen, who managed 10 points and some solid defense off the bench.

The Tigers were able to get quality numbers from Jaron Blossomgame, who had 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Unfortunately, this was a team high in scoring, as Clemson was never really competitive in this one.

After a quick 11-6 lead for Clemson, the first half was all Duke thanks to some solid defense by the shorthanded lineup. Stephen Wiseman of The Durham Herald-Sun noted the physical nature of the game early:

As Raphielle Johnson of NBC Sports noted, the press was a big reason for the early success as Clemson couldn't move the ball up the court:

The David Glenn Show provided some stats to show how this pressure led to the first-half lead:

Even without making many jump shots, Duke was able to pull away and earn a 42-27 lead at halftime, capped by this impressive finish by Cook, via Ryan Krasnoo of Sports Illustrated:

The second half seemed to be a chance for the home team to pull away, but the Tigers wouldn't quit. A few big three-pointers got them back into the game and cut the deficit to just 10 points with 14 minutes remaining.

Unfortunately for the underdogs, this was as close as they got for the rest of the contest. 

Clemson continued to struggle with the zone defense while the cold-shooting Blue Devils finally started to hit shots, making six in a row from three-point range in the second half.

Adam Rowe of 247Sports noted how emotional Cook got after one big shot:

Meanwhile, the scoring in the paint was just as effective despite the absence of the team's key player, as Powell Latimer of the News & Record pointed out:

This was enough for the Blue Devils to keep things up for a 22-point win.

Duke will try to continue its recent string of success with a road game against Virginia Tech Wednesday night. The squad has now won seven games in a row, although it will likely need to remain perfect the rest of the way if it wants to catch Virginia for a share of the ACC regular-season title.

As for Clemson, the team is simply looking to earn a spot in the postseason after falling to 15-12 on the season. Things get much easier with a home game against Georgia Tech next Saturday, but this group has a lot of work to make up over the next few weeks.

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