The Duke Blue Devils were able to hold serve against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons with an 84-70 win in Winston-Salem. Duke moved to 6-2 in the conference and 18-2 overall while Wake drops to 1-7 and in the conference and 8-12 overall.
Wake coughed up the ball to the Blue Devils 21 times in the game accounting for 34 of the 84 Duke points. Defensively Duke was improved, primarily playing man-to-man, holding Wake to 43% shooting overall but only 25% from beyond the arc. Duke was out-rebounded by the Demon Deacons 37-31 but Duke was able to negate this advantage by going 30-39 from the free throw line to only 11-13 for Wake.
Wendell Carter was a monster for Duke scoring 23 points on 6 of 9 shooting an going 10-13 from the free throw line. Carter also added 12 rebounds notching another double-double. Marvin Bagley despite a slow start also finished the night with a double-double scoring 16 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. If Carter was the thunder then Grayson Allen was the lightening for the Blue Devils. The senior 2 guard scored 17 in the game and also dished out 6 assists. Allen made several heady plays for Duke and was aggressive with the basketball. Grayson assumed the primary ball-handling abilities when guard Trevon Duval was sat by Coach K in the second half.
Gary Trent Jr. was a silent assassin for the Devils, the freshman 2 guard seemed to have an answer for every Wake run hitting big shot after big shot on his way to 19 points for the game on 6-12 shooting. Gary Trent Jr. has quietly put together a string of games for Duke that include 19, 30, 17 and 19 points.
Wake was carried by Doral Moore who score 18 for the game but was limited to just 4 points in the second half before fouling out with 2:18. Brandon Childress scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half to carry much of the scoring load for the Demon Deacons.
Next up for the Blue Devils is a home game against the number 2 team in the nation University of Virginia Cavaliers who are unbeaten in ACC play this year.
