PNC Arena has been a house of horrors for Duke teams over the years including the absolute undressing of the Blue Devils 80-64 by Wolfpack last season. The first 2:54 of this one was trending towards another possible beatdown with the Pack starting the game on a 9-0 run. A quick timeout to reset things for Jon Scheyer, though, and the Blue Devils battled back to take the lead. Duke scratched and clawed and didn’t have their best stuff from outside in the first half and to compound things sophomore center Kyle Filipowski picked up his second person foul with 8 minutes left in the first half. Duke was unbothered, they went to their bench. The bench responded. Duke was able to get good, if not frenetic minuted from their bench. In a half where points were at a premium and baskets hard to come by, Jon Scheyer was able to get 9 points from his bench. 9 points out of Duke’s 33 first half points. Duke eked out a 3 point lead at the half and did it while only shooting 33% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. For NC State DJ Burns was the story – per usual he dominated Duke in the paint scoring 13 points in the first period.
NC State used a 14-10 run to take a 1 point lead at the 14:20 mark of the first half. The first 11 minutes of the first half saw 4 lead changes as the team volleyed back and forth offensively. Duke used a 14-4 run to take their first double-figure lead and ended the game on a 19-12 run to win going away 79-64 in a tough road environment.
Jeremy Roach paced the Blue Devils with 21 points on 9-17 shooting. The senior guard also added 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Despite a touch shooting game for Jared McCain he was still able to hit on 3-9 of his 3-point shots, scoring 16 points – none more impressive than his 4-point play off of an offensive rebound. Freshman Sean Stewart may have had his most impressive game as a Blue Devil. Stewart was all over the floor, diving for loose balls, playing excellent defense on a player that probably outweighs him by 50lbs. Stewart scored a career high 12 points, pulled down 5 rebounds, blocked 3 shots, stole the ball twice and had many more hustle plays that don’t show up on a stat sheet. The Blue Devils do not win this game without his contributions. Period.
The Blue Devils feasted on the boards for the second game in a row, out-rebounding the Wolfpack 36-31. Specifically Duke’s 19 offensive rebounds leading to 23 points were the offensive stat of the game. Sean Stewart, Ryan Young and Mark Mitchell each pulled down 4 offensive rebounds each for Duke. The Blue Devils also scored 21 points off of 10 NC State turnovers while only turning the ball over 5 times themselves.
The Blue Devils move to 24-6 and 15-4 in the ACC, winning 3 straight.
