For the first time since 2013, Duke is exiting the ACC Tournament the day it began play.
NC State, playing its third game in three days, stunned the Blue Devils, 74-69, making it a short getaway in the nation’s capital for the Dookies.
No. 10 seed NC State will face No. 3 Virginia in the semifinals Friday night, after the Cavaliers claimed a grueling overtime win over Boston College, 66-60,
Duke heads back to Durham riding a two-game losing streak, awaiting Selection Sunday.
The Wolfpack led by as much as 11 late, but missed free throws and a missed dunk that turned into a technical, allowed Duke to trim the deficit to within two.
Late free throws by State’s DJ Horne finally sent Duke packing.
Despite playing for the third consecutive day, NC State appeared the more aggressive and energized team.
A key stat: NC State had an 18-8 advantage in second-chance points.
The Wolfpack answered every Blue Devils challenge down the stretch, despite a sparkling effort by Duke’s Kyle Filipowski, who had 28 points and 14 rebounds.
The Blue Devils started the game by missing their first nine field goal attempts and struggled from the floor throughout the game.
State held as much as an 11-point lead during first-half action, but Filipowski kept Duke within striking distance with 12 first-half points.
The Wolfpack roared out of the break with a 6-0 run, pushing the lead to nine.
Duke, behind Filipowski, cut the lead to two, but NC State withstood the punch.
Casey Morsell immediately responded with a traditional three-point play, moving the lead back to five, as the State benched leaped with energy and confidence.
The Wolfpack had an answer to every Duke charge, with a key basket, or defensive stand.
NC State increased the lead to 10 late, as the Duke fanbase became eerily silent.
The Wolfpack was on the doorstep of a huge upset.
Then the game turned wild.
A Filipowski (who else?) spin move for a basket sliced the lead to five.
Then State’s Ben Middlebrooks somehow missed a gimme dunk, and adding insult to injury was assessed a technical for hanging on the rim a bit too long.
Given new life, Duke, again closed to within two in the final minute, thanks primarily to three-straight State missed free throws.
An improbable Duke comeback appeared possible.
But not so.
NC State converted two late free throws to push the lead to four with 15 seconds left, and Duke was finished.
Three-point shooting and no productivity from its bench proved fatal for the Blue Devils.
For the night Duke was just 5-of-20 from behind the arc and got absolutely nothing from its bench.
Nothing, zilch.
Duke took the floor Thursday a bit banged up.
Head-banged up.
Duke’s Jared McCain started the game with a bandage on his forehead, just above his eye after head-butting teammate-in the pregame warm-ups.
Maybe a precursor for the Dookies?
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer came thisclose to using McCain’s head injury as an excuse.
“Jared wasn’t himself, no doubt, Scheyer said. “Jared will say he’s fine because he doesn’t make excuses, because he doesn’t make excuses. But he didn’t have the same pop as usual.”
Hum, maybe McCain doesn’t make excuses because his head coach did.
NC State became the first team in ACC history to make it to the semifinals after starting the tourney on Tuesday.
The Wolfpack had to dig itself out of a double-digit hole against Louisville Tuesday, before blowing away Syracuse.
It was, without a doubt, the most impressive win of the season for NC State.
“Obviously, we’re prepared for this,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said. “I would say this, a lot of people talk about our conditioning and how it pays off for us, when you look at those three games that we played, we’ve looked like the fresher team.”
Duke would have to agree.
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