Lance King Photo
Raleigh, N.C. – Duke [15-3, 3-2] proved it as not above the rest of the ACC as they struggled on the road against a fired up North Carolina State team and in the process got thumped 88-74.
In a game that feature 59 free throws due to tight calls, the Wolfpack drained 58.2% from the field to Duke’s 38.6% and that pretty much proved to be the difference.
The Packs Tracy Smith led the way for the victors with 23 points and Dennis Horner added 20. Unlike Duke, the Pack’s leaders got help from the rest of the team on offense.
How inefficient was Duke past the big three of Scheyer, Singler and Smith? Well, of the Blue Devils 74 points, only 13 came from the rest of the team.
The aforementioned three will need some help if Duke is to get past their road woes and Kryzyzewski was not happy with his teams energy.
“They brought more energy than we did. They looked like a team that played a game at noon on Saturday and we looked like a team that went through a war on Sunday night.
It was quite simply the Blue Devils worst defensive effort of the season and Kryzyzeski was quick to point that out as well.
With the Wolfpack shooting lights out for most of the way, Duke never really got it’s three point shooting untracked.
The Blue Devils looked as if their feet were in sand on some plays and that is the sign of a tired team.
Coming into the game after the way Duke’s front line played in the last to games, who would have thought they would be outscored in the paint by a 36-28 margin, yet oddly Duke led the battle of the boards 40-28.
But of the Wolfpacks 28 boards, 22 of them ere on the defensive end where they limited Duke to one shot for most of the second half.
That also means the Wolfpack was shooting the ball well as evidenced by another statistical anomaly where Duke outscored them 19-2 on second chance points.
Duke managed just 8 assists on the evening and had 14 turnovers.
The Blue Devils will now regroup and travel to Death Valley to face Clemson who ran them out of the gym last year.
We’ll have more on the game in the BDN Locker Room Report in the A.M.
