The one game at a time approach is a tried and true philosophy in college sports, but there was nothing about Wednesday’s game for NC State against Duke felt normal.

Whether it was about energy, mojo or confidence, whatever buzz word someone wants to use, the Wolfpack had an abundance of it, and right from the start. NC State a good ‘ol fashion butt-whooping on No. 6-ranked Duke in front of of 19,515 fans at PNC Arena. NCSU was seeking an NCAA Tournament resume booster, and got that in spades to improve to improve to 17-9 overall and 8-7 in the ACC.

“We are a good basketball team when we have everybody healthy,” said NCSU head coach Kevin Keatts, who had eight healthy scholarship players Wednesday. “Our fans were tremendous tonight and our students were great. Our fans came out for us.”

Redshirt junior wing Devon Daniels was the ringleader for it, with three quick baskets and two free throws to engineer an early 12-2 lead on No. 6-ranked Duke.

Duke was able to recover a bit, to make it 14-9, but the Daniels ripped off six straight points to push the lead to 20-11 with 9:59 left. Daniels had 18 of his 25 points in the first half and NC State played in a fashion unseen this season.

“I thought Devon Daniels really carried us in the first half and got to the hole,” Keatts said. “One of our game plans was we wanted to drive to the basket and not settle for threes. After the BC game, we weren’t shooting the three-pointer well.”

If it wasn’t Daniels delivering the big plays, senior point guard Markell Johnson came through with one of his best games of the season. He drained tough jumpers and finished at the rim, and even hit his third of the season buzzer-beater from beyond halfcourt right before halftime. He finished with 28 points, nine rebounds, four assists and he went 5 of 6 on three-pointers.

'It's a game-changer when you have two guys [Johnson, Daniels] with 25 points apiece with like four minutes left," said NCSU redshirt junior center D.J. Funderburk, who had 21 points and nine rebounds. "There is no telling what they can create for other people. Everybody ate and got in. Everyone loved the energy."

Johnson won the big individual battle against Duke star sophomore point guard Tre Jones, who finished with 17 points and four assists for the Blue Devils.

Johnson was coming off having just four points and six turnovers at Boston College on Sunday. Keatts said Johnson came back strong in practice following the deflating 71-68 loss. Keatts didn’t want to get into the debate about “good Markell vs. bad Markell” but acknowledged this season has had some ebbs and flows.

“Markell is always good,” Keatts said. “There is not a ‘bad’ Markell. There is a great and a good. He was great tonight. Give him credit.”

NC State had a good inkling that Duke star freshman center Vernon Carey Jr. would be a tough matchup.

Add in the driving abilities of Jones and that’s two key cogs of the Duke offense. The Carey and Jones duo combined for 44 points, but the rest of the Blue Devils mustered just 22.

“We had no answer for Vernon Carey,” Keatts said. “We knew it coming into the game. We wanted to do a good job of not letting the other guys beat us from the outside.”

Keatts left in redshirt freshman center Manny Bates with four fouls, with the hope he could deter Carey some, but then Bates quickly fouled out with 11:18 left in the game.

“He was the only guy to give him a little bit of a problem because of his shot-blocking ability,” Keatts said.

NC State did a superb job of making Duke two-dimensional and shut down freshman wing Cassius Stanley, who only went 2 of 5 from the field for four points.

Limiting the role players led to Duke shooting 4 of 17 from three-point land and just 37.7 percent overall from the field. For one game, Duke looked like a team playing mostly freshman, and three of them — Stanley, power forward Matthew Hurt and wing Wendell Moore Jr. — combined for just 11 points. Duke junior guard Jordan Goldwire had nine field-goal attempts which was the third most on the team, and he’s limited offensively.

“We had some guys play some really great defense,” Keatts said.

If NC State “poured it out” against Duke, will it prove to be a “one off,” or will it lead to momentum against Florida State on Saturday at PNC Arena. A win over both Duke and Florida State should be enough to get the Wolfpack into the NCAA Tournament this season.

“The conference is wide open right now,” NCSU senior wing C.J. Bryce said. “Everyone is beating everybody. For us to knock off the top team, it’s big time for us.”

Dealing with the emotions of a disappointing 71-68 loss at Boston College on Feb. 16, followed by the thrilling win over Duke and then having No. 8-ranked Florida State looming shows the highs and lows of college basketball.

“We want to build off of it and there is more basketball to be played,” Bryce said. “We want to continue to prove [ourselves].

“We’ll definitely take this one. We have another one here Saturday. I hope Wolfpack Nation comes back out and shows like they did tonight.”

Bryce said people could have deduced that the Wolfpack weren’t on the “right track” following the loss at BC.

“Even in the Boston College game, we played very hard,” Bryce said. “We came up a little short at the end. This win tonight shows that we are moving in the right direction. This was a great team win.”

Keatts knows his team wouldn’t have responded well if he told them they had to defeat Duke and FSU at home this week to ensure a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“I don’t really talk about that with those guys,” Keatts said. “I’m not sure they can handle it. We just said this was two opportunities you can take advantage of.”

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