NCAA Top 25 Men’s Basketball Scores, Recaps on March 4

NEW YORK (Sporting Alert) — NCAA DI men’s basketball scores, results and recaps from the fixtures that took place on Wednesday night, March 4.

Duke Cruises To Victory

No. 3 Duke scored 52 first half points to setup a one-sided 94-51 victory over Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham on Wednesday night.

Grayson Allen scored 19 of his season-best 27 points in the first half to lead the Blue Devils (27-3, 14-3 ACC) off the bench. The freshman guard went 9 for 11 from the field, including 4 for 5 from three-point range in 24-minutes of action.

“It wasn’t really me waiting for a chance — it was me being able to translate it into the game from practice,” Allen told reporters.

“Coach has been giving me opportunities, and I was able to capitalize today. This is the type of game to get my confidence going.”

Star point guard Matt Jones added 17 points for the Blue Devils (27-3, 14-3) and Justise Winslow supported well with 13 points, seven assists, six rebounds and six steals.

Senior Quinn Cook, playing in his last home game, also scored 13 points in the win for Duke, which captured its 10th straight win.

“What a great way for Quinn [Cook] to go out,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our defense was so good in the first half; I was obviously surprised with that.

“To have Grayson [Allen] and Matt [Jones] get 44 of our points was very good. Just a really good performance by my guys.

Freshman star center and player of the year candidate Jahlil Okafor played just 19 minutes and finished with six points and four boards for Duke, which never really needed him.

“We got a chance to rest Jah[lil Okafor] tonight,” Krzyzewski noted. “We got a couple more sprained ankles. They were able to come back in the game, so we have to do a good job with that.”

Codi Miller-McIntyre scored 20 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals to lead Wake Forest (13-17, 5-12), while Mitchell Wilbekin added 11 points and for boards for the Demon Deacons, who lost four of five.

“Kind of a simple game to talk about; Duke came out with a lot of energy and a lot of effort and played exceptionally well and we had a very disappointing showing,” Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning said.

Wake Forest had 19 turnovers in the games and 14 of them came in the first half.

“A lot of the times the pass was the right idea. We didn’t go meet the ball, or it was just a careless pass,” Manning said.

“We just have to handle it better. We have to do a better job of getting three outlets when they commit two guys to the basketball, and being able to make ourselves available, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

In another top 25 game on Wednesday night, No. 12 Notre Dame secured a 71-59 victory over No. 16 Louisville.

Demetrius Jackson, who scored 21 points and Bonzie Colson, who added 17 points and nine rebounds, led the way for the Fighting Irish (25-5, 13-4 ACC), who won four of the last five.

Defeat saw the Cardinals’ three game winning streak snapped.

They were led by Montrezl Harrell’s double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Elsewhere on the night, No. 23 Ohio State beat Penn State 77-67 and No. 24 Providence had a 79-66 victory over Seton Hall.

NCAA Top 25 Games Scores and Recaps
March, 4.

(3) Duke 94, Wake Forest 51
(12) Notre Dame 71, (16) Louisville 59
(23) Ohio State 77, Penn State 67
(24) Providence 79, Seton Hall 66