Duke didn’t need three-pointers to beat NC State in the second half. In fact, the Blue Devils only made one after halftime.

Duke earned some revenge by defeating NC State 88-69 on Monday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Wolfpack fell to 18-12 overall and 9-10 in the ACC, and will host Wake Forest on Friday for Senior Night.

The Wolfpack trounced Duke 88-66 on Feb. 19, and the optics for the Blue Devils were not good in the first half. No. 7-ranked Duke needed a big second half to put away NCSU.

Duke made its move with fastbreak layups and dunks, with freshman wing Cassius Stanley the catalyst. He scored 14 of his 18 points after halftime and the Blue Devils out-rebounded NCSU 20-13 during that stretch.

“We weren’t knocking down shots and then on the other end, we were letting them have easy baskets,” NCSU sophomore forward Jericole Hellems said. “In the second half, their transition scored much better.”

Stanley got the ball rolling when he grabbed two offensive rebounds and made a layup. Stanley then blocked Hellems’ layup attempt, and junior guard Jordan Goldwire got a runout for a layup to push the lead to 55-49.

Freshman wing Wendell Moore got a fastbreak layup, and then a lob to Stanley for a big dunk helped Duke open a 59-49 lead. Stanley’s second lob dunk was the cherry on top, and Duke led 63-52 with 10:02 left.

“We just didn’t get back,” NCSU redshirt junior wing Devon Daniels said. “We can’t let that happen.”

The Blue Devils had 16 of their 25 fastbreak points happen after halftime.

“When we stopped making shots, is when we stopped doing the little things,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “They had all of the winning plays in the second half.

“It is going to be hard for us to beat anybody in this conference, especially a good team like Duke on their home floor, if you give up 16 offensive rebounds and they got 25 points in transition.”

NC State went 12 of 32 from the field in the second half for 37.5 percent. Keatts believes not seeing the ball go through the net contributed to not getting back on defense and doing the little things.

“We didn’t get back and we did a poor job of blocking out,” Keatts said. “I thought the first time we played them, we out-rebounded them 51-to-43, and they completely out-rebounded us tonight.”

NC State had every opportunity to build a double-digit lead at halftime.

Duke opened the game shooting 1 of 13 from the field and were down 11-4 with 13:30 left in the first half. NC State was politically correct after the game, but a golden opportunity to jump the Blue Devils was there.

“I know Duke missed 12 of their first 13, but that being said, we weren’t on fire ourselves,” Keatts said. “We didn’t make a lot of shots.”

NCSU fifth-year senior wing C.J. Bryce buried a three-pointer to give the Wolfpack a 32-25 lead with 3:55 left in the first half. The door was open for NC State to make its move, but instead Duke did. The Blue Devils went on a 8-0 spurt to lead 38-36 at halftime, which did not please Keatts.

“I don’t feel like we missed an opportunity, but I think should have had the last shot of the half,” Keatts said. “It was a two-second differential in the shot clock and game clock. We took a bonehead shot with nine seconds on the clock, which led to an easy basket on the other end. I thought the momentum shifted toward the half.”

Daniels essentially said basketball is a game of runs, and the Wolfpack couldn’t put together that first-half burst to build a comfortable lead.

“In first half, we were getting to the bucket, setting screens and getting out on the fastbreak,” Daniels said.

Keatts thought the Wolfpack had established itself on the defensive end in the first half. Conversely, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game that he turned to a zone defense to basically get five players to know what NCSU senior point guard Markell Johnson was doing. Johnson went 1 for 6 in the second half for two points. He finished with 11 points, seven assists and six turnovers.

Personnel surprises don’t usually occur on March 2 of a season.

The surprise came when walk-on center Justin Robinson, a fifth-year senior, and Goldwire ended up leading the way in the first-half comeback.

Robinson, the son of former NBA star David Robinson, made a pair of three-pointers en route to eight points and Goldwire chipped in seven points. Keatts has talked about players being aware of the scouting report off and on this season. Robinson, if he was on it, was likely buried in small print, and Goldwire wasn’t expected to provide an offensive boost.

“It’s a D-I program and everybody on the court can play basketball,” Daniels said. “He hit a couple of threes and we had to adjust to it.”

Robinson, who entered the game with 19 points on the season, found a way to get 10 points, and Goldwire finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. That was the fifth time this season Goldwire reached double digits and sixth game that Robinson was able to get a basket in this season.

——

• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook