Duke starts hot, ousts Robert Morris

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Quinn Cook scored 22 points to help top-seeded Duke get off to a torrid start and beat Robert Morris 85-56 on Friday night in the NCAA Tournament's round of 64.

Freshman Jahlil Okafor added 21 as the Blue Devils (30-4) wasted little time getting their offense revving, hitting their first seven shots and 12 of 15 to quickly build a big lead.

That's not to say everything went smoothly for Duke, a team with half of its eight scholarship players making its tournament debut. Coach Mike Krzyzewski furiously burned a timeout after Okafor blew a reverse dunk, while Robert Morris -- the No. 16 seed that had to win a First Four game to get here -- kept hanging around for the first part of the second half before the Blue Devils finally put the game out of reach.

After Robert Morris (20-15) pulled within 10 midway through the second half, the Blue Devils ran off 12 consecutive points with a suddenly dominant burst to push the lead back to 68-46 on Amile Jefferson's transition layup with 8:29 left.

Duke was in command from there, shooting 63 percent in the program's 100th NCAA Tournament victory.

Duke advanced to play the St. John's-San Diego State winner Sunday. The Blue Devils are a No. 1 seed for the 11th time in 18 seasons, though this is their first since 2011.

Cook made 8 of 12 shots, including a 6-for-10 performance on three-pointers.

Meanwhile, Okafor had a strong start, too. Facing an undersized front line, the freshman was 9 for 11 from the field and played just 21 minutes.

Rodney Pryor scored 23 points on 10-for-19 shooting for Robert Morris, the Northeast Conference champion playing in its eighth NCAA Tournament.

IOWA 83, DAVIDSON 52

SEATTLE -- Once Aaron White got rolling, Iowa could not be stopped.

White scored 13 consecutive points as part of Iowa's 18-3 run early in the second half, and the seventh-seeded Hawkeyes rolled into the South Region round of 32 with a rout of No. 10 seed Davidson.

White finished with 26 points as Iowa (22-11) used its significant height advantage to overwhelm the champions of the Atlantic 10 Conference regular season. Davidson had no answers on defense and couldn't match Iowa's shooting as the Hawkeyes won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2001 when they were also a No. 7 seed and won their opener.

Mike Gesell added 15 points and Peter Jok scored 12 for Iowa.

Jack Gibbs and Peyton Aldridge scored 14 to lead Davidson (24-8), but the Wildcats never overcame three early fouls on Tyler Kalinoski, the Atlantic-10 player of the year. Kalinoski went the final 35 minutes without scoring, and finished with five points, snapping a string of 21 consecutive games with 10 or more points.

Iowa was a question mark entering the tournament after getting knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals by Penn State, the 13th place team in the conference. Any doubt was erased with a strong first half and White's performance in the final 20 minutes.

Iowa's lead was nine when White got hot. He scored on seven of eight Iowa possessions and did a little of everything. He worked on the post and scored inside, showed his explosiveness with a thunderous dunk and hit an open three-pointer. In a span of 7 minutes, White scored 17 of Iowa's 22 points. By the time Brian Sullivan hit a three-pointer for Davidson to slow the run, the Hawkeyes' lead was 18.

It was the largest margin of victory in Iowa's tournament history.

Sports on 03/21/2015

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