NEW YORK -- Almost everybody in Madison Square Garden was impressed with the game Amile Jefferson had for No. 5 Duke.Nobody appreciated it more than Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski.Jefferson set career highs with 24 points and 15 rebounds to lead Duke to an 84-74 victory over No. 21 Florida on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic.Amile played one of the great games, Krzyzewski said. God bless him. He was fantastic.Luke Kennard scored 29 points and freshman Jayson Tatum added 22 for the Blue Devils (9-1), whose only loss was to Kansas on this same court in the Champions Classic in November.Krzyzewski also praised Kennard, who established his career high for points in the previous game against Maine.Lukes played fantastic, Krzyzewski said. When you get 29 points on 16 shots -- what hed have, 35 against Maine? Really efficient. Hes come through for us beautifully. Hes starting to put it together a little bit.Twice in the final 8 minutes the Gators (7-2) got within seven points but both times Kennard scored to hold off Florida, once with a 3-pointer and again with a long layup off a steal.Down the stretch in that second half, every time they made a play, we did a great job of coming back and taking the air out of the ball, using 20 seconds and then getting up a good shot, Jefferson said. Whether it was Luke, whether it was Jayson, whether it was G (Grayson Allen) penetrating and finding somebody, our guys did an amazing job of never splintering.The 6-foot-9 Jefferson, who also blocked four shots, was 11 for 14 from the field. Kennard went 11 of 16, including 5 for 7 from 3-point range.Kevaughn Allen led Florida with 21 points, and John Egbunu had nine points and 12 rebounds.They were a better team tonight, Florida coach Mike White said. I thought our guys were really jacked up for the opportunity. I thought Amile Jefferson was amazing, just absolutely amazing.Duke closed the first half with an 8-2 run -- Jefferson and Tatum had four points each -- for a 41-31 lead.Allen, Dukes preseason All-America, had an off night shooting (2 for 10, including 1 for 5 on 3s) but he had eight assists to go with his six points.I thought Jayson came out tonight and did an amazing job of just letting it all out, Jefferson said. Luke is the smoothest player in the country. So playing with these guys has been so much fun so far.BIG PICTUREFlorida: In the first eight games of the season, six different players led the Gators in scoring. ... White was 3 years old when Krzyzewski started coaching at Duke. ... Because of renovations at the OConnell Center on the Florida campus, the Gators wont play their first home game until Dec. 21 against Arkansas-Little Rock. All their games are either on the road or at neutral sites until then.Duke: Krzyzewski is 29-10 at Madison Square Garden as Duke coach. ... The Blue Devils lead the all-time series with Florida 13-4. ... Jefferson was coming off a career-high 20 points against Maine. He had 14 rebounds four times. ... Duke had five double-figure scorers in seven of its nine games coming in. The Blue Devils had three against Florida, all over 20 points.I think were really close if were not there, Kennard said. I think we really, really shared the ball well tonight on the offensive end because we have a lot of scorers. We have a lot of playmakers and a lot of scorers and the way we can share the ball, its pretty special. Not a lot of teams have that many scorers on a team and when we share the ball and get open shots, we can be really dangerous on the offensive end.JIMMY VThroughout both games, videos were shown during timeouts featuring cancer survivors or those whose life has been affected by the disease. The Garden also showed Jim Valvanos speech at the ESPYs when he announced the formation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The crowd of 15,294 broke into a prolonged round of applause when it ended with Valvanos now famous Dont give up. Dont ever give up.I miss him, Krzyzewski said of Valvano. Im glad he had the vision to get this thing started.GOOD DBoth teams played solid man-to-man defense and it was such a halfcourt game that there were only 18 fast-break points, 10 for Florida.FAMILY TIESKevin White, the athletic director at Duke, is the father of Florida coach Mike White.UP NEXTFlorida: The Gators head for a real rivalry game, Sunday at Florida State.Duke: On Saturday the Blue Devils travel to Las Vegas to meet UNLV. Jaromir Jagr Jersey . -- Chicago Bears cornerback Tim Jennings was selected Monday to his second straight Pro Bowl, while guard Kyle Long made it after a solid rookie season. Paul Martin Penguins Jersey . The 29-year-old from Port Colborne, Ont., has nothing but good things to say about former U.S. marine Liz (Girlrilla) Carmouche ahead of their co-main event Wednesday on the UFCs "Fight for the Troops" televised card in Fort Campbell, Ky. http://www.penguinsauthenticofficial.com/ron-francis-jersey/ . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. Jack Johnson Penguins Jersey . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford. Paul Coffey Penguins Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. OKLAHOMA CITY -- As Russell Westbrook took off, he saw Clint Capela as a mere obstacle to victory rather than an athletic 6-foot-10 shot blocker.In the blink of an eye, Westbrook uncorked a vicious left-handed hammer dunk over Capela in the closing seconds to help the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 105-103 on Wednesday night.Oklahoma City led by three when the 6-3 Westbrook threw it down with 5.5 seconds left to put the Thunder up five.Westbrook said Capelas reputation -- he had already blocked three shots on the night and ranks among the leagues leaders -- didnt deter him.It dont matter, man, Westbrook said. Game on the line. If you get blocked, or you make a dunk -- its one or the other. Fortunately, it went in and it closed the game for us.Oklahoma City center Steven Adams, who isnt easily impressed, cracked a smile when asked about Westbrooks jam.Just happy its not me, he said. Thats pretty much like the only thing is `Thank goodness hes on my team. That was crazy. Honestly, he did a good job, Capela. Nice little bit of defense, honestly. Verticality, avoided the foul, and obviously, hes (Westbrook) just a really athletic dude. Just caught him.Westbrook finished with 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Victor Oladipo added season highs of 29 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder, who snapped a four-game losing streak.James Harden, the leagues assist leader and No. 4 scorer heading into the night, finished with 13 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds. He made just 4 of 16 shots while being harassed by Andre Roberson.Dre did an amazing job, like hes been doing all season, Westbrook said. James is a tough player, obviously, and he (Roberson) did a great job of making him shoot over his length. He needs to get credit for what hes been doing defensively all year.Capela added 13 points and 14 rebounds for the Rockets, who went scoreless for more than six minutes in the fourth quarter to help the Thunder position themselves for the win.We didnt play well, Harden said. We didnt shoot the ball well, and we still had an opportunity to win.Oklahoma City led 65-63 at halftime as Westbrook had 20 points and Oladipo 17. Thhe shot 61 percent before the break.dddddddddddd The Rockets offense worked, despite just five points from Harden on 1-for-6 shooting.The Rockets started strong after the break, and a 14-5 binge put Houston up 77-70 and led to an Oklahoma City timeout. The Rockets stretched their lead to 11, but the Thunder pulled to 90-85 by the end of the period.Oladipos 3-pointer with just under three minutes to play tied the score at 100, then Robersons alley-oop dunk on a lob from Westbrook finally put the Thunder ahead.Westbrook made a free throw to extend Oklahoma Citys lead to three with 28 seconds remaining. Houston missed an opportunity when Harden and Trevor Ariza failed to connect while Ariza was open in the corner. That set up Westbrooks game-clinching dunk.I still