There was quite a bit of chatter around the internet about NC State being a cakewalk game. Those of us who have been around the ACC knew better. While I expected a tough game from NC State, I did not fully expect them to be able to be as effective as they were for 40 minutes.
Kevin Keatts had his team ready to play, and they came into Cameron Indoor Stadium and lit up Duke in the first half, leading the Blue Devils by as much as 13 points in the first stanza. With a 1 point lead at the 16:37 mark, the Wolfpack put an 18-8 run on the Blue Devils to push their lead to 12 points. The Blue Devils would punch back with their own 11-4 run to pull within 5. NC State would again push the lead to double-digits with 4:14 remaining in the first half, they amassed their largest at 13. Duke again punched back with an 11-2 run to end the half, fueled by 5 points from Sion James.
The Blue Devils came out with renewed purpose from the locker room in the second half, forcing 3 shot clock violations on the Pack. Duke funnels that defense into offense scoring the first 12 points of the second half to regain a lead. Duke’s offense never fully clicked, and they were never able to get good separation from NC State. The Wolfpack hit big shot after big shot, eventually getting within 1 of Duke at the 9:35 mark of the second half. Duke would push the lead to 7, but State continued to battle getting within 2 several times and within 1 again at the 4:40 mark. From there, Duke would end the game on an 11-3 run to win 74-64.
The NC State guards, for the majority of the night, were unstoppable, especially Dontrez Styles and Trey Parker. Styles, who was Cooper Flagg’s primary defender, was stout on that end while shooting the lights out offensively. Styles scored a team high 18 points, hitting 4 3-pointers before fouling out late in the second half. Freshman Trey Parker scored 15, hitting 3-4 of his 3 point shots, going 6-9 overall from the floor. The Wolfpack shot 45.5% from 3 for the game, after shooting just 29% in conference games.
For the Blue Devils, heavy doses of Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel were needed. Kon Knueppel paced the Blue Devils in the first half, scoring 11 points to lead Duke in the first stanza. Knueppel would finish with 19 for the game, adding 3 steals and 6 rebounds to the box score. Cooper Flagg did not have an explosive first half, scoring just 5 points, but the freshman phenom went nuclear in the second half, 23 second half points on his way to 28 for the game. Flagg also added 3 assists and 7 rebounds.
Duke didn’t have their best stuff on either end of the floor, shooting just 21% from 3 point range. The Blue Devils did hold a significant edge from the free throw line 24-28, while the Wolfpack shot just 7, making 6. Once again for Jon Scheyer, going to a zone defense stemmed the tide and created stops for Duke when their base defense was ineffective. It generated a couple of turnovers, some rushed shots and created fast break opportunities for the Blue Devils who held a 25-10 edge in fast break points. The Blue Devils also won the rebounding battle handily, 42-27.
For Duke, there is a lot to clean up on both ends of the floor. Offensively, Jon Scheyer mentioned needing to help his team more with what to do when the initial action is taken away, the third year coach took ownership of some of the offensive struggles for Duke tonight. Next up is a date with another team that is desperate for an ACC win in North Carolina Saturday.
