NC State tries different tactic, but gets similar result
NC State has played in a variety of ways this season, but used a different approach against Duke on Monday.
NC State completely ran the offense through senior center D.J. Burns, and the plan worked for about 30 minutes, but sometimes it can be pick your poison against top 10 teams such as No. 9-ranked Duke.
The Blue Devils grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and had freshman shooting guard Jared McCain and senior point guard Jeremy Roach get hot to pull out the 79-64 win on the Wolfpack’s Senior Night.
“Defense, defense for sure,” said Burns on what went wrong in the second half. “We had too many defensive mistakes. We limited them in the first half and we came out and didn’t do as good of a job in the second half and that’s when they blew it open.”
NC State fell to 17-13 overall and 9-10 in the ACC, with a road trip to Pittsburgh on Saturday up next. Duke improved to 24-6 and 15-4 in the league and host North Carolina on Saturday.
“D.J. Burns was really good tonight and we wanted to win the game because of the way he played,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “There is so much parity in this league.
“The [ACC] Tournament is completely wide open and we have to prepare ourselves for the tournament.”
The loss led to what has become a season-long theme where NC State has shown it can play with just about anyone in the ACC, but opportunities for big wins have been few and far between this season. NC State’s margin for error can’t make up for little mistakes that pop up during a game against a quality team like Duke.
“We had some defensive breakdowns that we had not allowed the entire game,” Keatts said. “We gave up an offensive rebound where we just stood and watched. We didn’t switch a screen and Flip [sophomore Kyle Filipowski of Duke] hit a three-pointer.”
The Filipowski three-pointer gave Duke a 53-47 lead with 10:30 left. Keatts said three or four crucial mental mistakes can help cause a game to get away from them.
“You can have mistakes against certain teams, but not the really good ones,” Keatts said. “The really good ones make you pay, and they made us pay for the mistakes we made down the stretch.”
Roach finished with a team-high 21 points, and McCain had 14 of his 16 points in the final 13:47 of the game to power the offense. However, the first 30 minutes was the chess match with Burns.
The largest player in the ACC got to his spot and used his 6-foot-9 frame to get lefty shot over and over en route to a game-high 27 points and four assists. He set the tone early in getting two fouls on Filipowski, who logged just four minutes in the first half and had nine points and two rebounds in 22 total minutes. Burns went 7 of 11 in the first half for 15 points, but Duke still had a 33-30 lead at halftime.
Burns had a little extra juice knowing it was his last home game at NC State.
“Oh man, it’s technically my third Senior Day, so it feels good to finally be able to walk,” Burns said. “That was kind of cool. Just to have one last game here, definitely meant a lot to me. It was awesome.”
Normally, NC State typically tries to run with Duke, but both teams were comfortable at the slower pace. It also helped that Roach and McCain combined to go 4 of 14 from the field in the first 20 minutes.
What Duke did do to counteract Burns was attack the offensive boards — 12 of the 19 offensive rebounds came in the first half — make Burns have to move in pick-and-rolls. Freshman post player Sean Stewart proved effective in doing both of those strategies. He came off the bench for 12 points, five rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes. Burns definitely got his against the much smaller 6-7 Stewart, but the matchup wasn’t completely one-sided.
“In March, you have to find a way to win ugly sometimes, have to find a way to win when you’re not your best,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “That’s what we did tonight, I think it says a lot about our confidence, and our growth.”
Duke also strategized that while Burns might get his, it would be more dangerous if Burns also scored and passed out to shooters such as senior guard D.J. Horne, who was limited to eight points on 4-of-8 shooting.
“I think they definitely game-planned for me,” Horne said. “I would run up and down the court multiple times and hear them saying, ‘Make sure you’re on Horne.’ I knew that was going to be something coming into the game and they did a good job at it. It’s also kind of a respect thing, too. They aren’t doing that for no reason.”
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