Quick hits and notes from NC State’s 94-78 loss at No. 2 Duke in front of 9,314 fans at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham Saturday evening.
Play of the game
With matchup nightmare Zion Williamson, Duke’s star freshman forward, on the bench with four fouls, the Pack had a chance to make the game really interesting. It trailed 69-61 when Wolfpack redshirt sophomore wing Devon Daniels was fouled going to the basket on a fast break opportunity with 8:42 left.
Unfortunately for NC State, Daniels missed both free throws. Then on the other end of the floor, Duke junior forward Jack White grabbed an offensive rebound on a missed three-pointer from Duke freshman wing Cam Reddish and scored on a layup.
That sequence was the game in a nutshell. NC State hung around but never quite threatened for various reasons, and offensive rebounding for Duke was a big one.
Highlight of the game
Williamson had his above-the-rim moments, and Duke had quite a few other dunks. NC State though had its own highlight when redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk grabbed an alley-oop pass from junior point guard Markell Johnson for a dunk on top of Duke’s defense with 4:40 left. That cut Duke’s lead to 77-67 with 4:40 remaining.
Player(s) of the game
You could pick either one of Williamson or Duke freshman RJ Barrett. Both simply were too much for NC State.
Williamson was 12 of 16 from the field, and all 12 of his makes seemed like they were within five feet of the basket. He was 8 of 13 from the line and finished with 32 points and six rebounds in just 29 minutes, missing time with the foul trouble. It was the second time this year Williamson scored more than 30 points and was three off his career high he set in an overtime loss to Syracuse.
Barrett recorded Duke’s first triple double since Shelden Williams did it in 2006 and just its fourth all-time. He had 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field and added 11 rebounds and 10 assists while playing 37 minutes.
NC State players of the game
NC State is at its best when Johnson and fifth-year senior wing Torin Dorn are playing well. Those are the two players returning from last year’s team that one could have argued going into the year were the Pack’s best all-conference candidates.
NC State got good efforts from the two who have been inconsistent in ACC play, and if it can carry forward it could be a good springboard to a strong finish. Johnson had a double-double of 16 points and 10 assists and turned it over only three times against Duke touted freshman Tre Jones.
As noted in our scouting Duke feature, Jones has held 14 point guards under the scoring averages this season, but Johnson exceeded his (10.8) and tied his second-best scoring output in an ACC game. Johnson also set a season-high in assists and had his first double-double of the year (fifth of his career).
Dorn shot 8 of 13 from the field and led NC State with 17 points in 34 minutes, building off a strong second half against Syracuse in his last outing. This was the first time Dorn, who has shot at least 50.0 from the field in each of his first three collegiate seasons, made more than half his shots in an ACC game. The 17 points were one off his season-high for a league game.
Doomed at the line and on the boards
To see where Duke won this game is fairly easy:
• The Blue Devils shot 21 of 28 at the line while NC State was just 6 of 11. NC State has been outscored by double digits in five ACC games, and not coincidentally they represent five of NC State’s seven conference defeats.
• Duke didn’t just win the battle on the boards, it crushed NC State. The Blue Devils had a 44-26 overall edge, including 14-5 on the offensive glass. That led to a 17-2 second-chance advantage for Duke. That was the largest negative disparity all season for the Pack in second chance points. It’s previous worst margin in an ACC game had only been four points, done twice (Clemson and Virginia Tech).
End of a brutal stretch
NC State has just finished an eight-game stretch of ACC games that would probably rival anyone’s conference slate. Five teams were ranked, including three in the top 10. A sixth, Syracuse, had received votes in a poll and came to Raleigh with an 8-3 league record. Another game was against Clemson, which has lost three games by one or two points and all decided in the final seconds en route to being 5-7 in the league.
NC State went just 3-5 in that stretch.
The final five games though is the opposite. NC State will play Boston College twice and host both Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. Those three teams are a combined 8-28 in ACC games. The Pack will have to travel to red-hot Florida State, which has won seven straight games and is 20-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC.
Spotted at the game
Duke rolled out the red carpet during NBA All-Star weekend and notably had legendary (and controversial) boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Former NC State ACC Player of the Year T.J. Warren, whose No. 24 will be honored next Sunday against Wake Forest, was also at the contest.
Scoring between official timeouts
This year we have kept track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:
First half
20:00-15:53: Duke 10, NC State 8
15:53-9:45: Duke 15, NC State 9
9:45-7:15: Duke 4, NC State 2
7:15-3:47: Duke 10, NC State 9
3:47-Halftime: NC State 12, Duke 9
Second half
20:00-15:27: NC State 12, Duke 11
15:27-11:27: Duke 5, NC State 3
11:27-7:44: Duke 7, NC State 6
7:44-4:00: NC State 6, Duke 6
4:00-Final: Duke 17, NC State 11
Game scores
Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.
Dorn: 13.0
Johnson: 12.3
Redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce: 10.0
Sophomore guard Braxton Beverly: 7.1
Freshman forward Jericole Hellems: 4.4
Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker: 3.2
Funderburk: 2.3
Daniels: 0.9
Plus/minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU. Notably, the five starters were all in the negatives.
• Bryce 0 (25 minutes played)
• Walker 0 (8)
• Dorn -9 (34)
• Funderburk -11 (17)
• Hellems -12 (21)
• Daniels -15 (21)
• Beverly -16 (36)
• Johnson -17 (38)
What the loss means
The Pack is 18-8 overall on the season and 6-7 in the ACC. Duke is 23-2 and 11-1. The Devils lead the all-time series 147-101, and NC State still has not won at Cameron with Mike Krzyzewski on the bench since 1988.
NC State falls to 5-5 away from home and 3-5 in true road games. It is 9-7 in night games (tips after 6 p.m.) and 10-2 on weekend contests. NC State drops to 1-7 when not leading at halftime.
The game was broadcast on ESPN. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.
- ACC Network Extra: 6-0
- RSN: 3-0
- ESPNU: 2-0
- Raycom: 5-4
- ESPN2: 2-2
- ESPN: 0-2
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 6-1
- December: 6-0
- January: 4-4
- February: 2-3
- March: 0-0
Other stats of note
• Duke won the points in the paint, 58-46. It was the most points in the paint NC State has allowed this year.
• The Blue Devils had an 8-2 win in fast-break points.
• Defensively, NC State had three blocks and eight steals. Duke had nine steals and eight rejections.
• NC State’s bench outscored the Devils’ reserves 20-8.
• Duke never trailed and its largest lead was the game’s final score. The game was tied for 1:15
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