NC State’s most recent success over Duke in Raleigh had no impact Saturday afternoon as the Blue Devils coasted to a 69-53 win over the Wolfpack inside PNC Arena.
Duke offensively shot 51% from the floor, including 50% from beyond the arc, while holding NC State to just 45% shooting – forcing the Wolfpack into 18 turnovers which resulted in 22 Blue Devil points.
Both teams made shuffles to their regular starting lineups with NC State going with two bigs with Manny Bates and DJ Funderburk, which resulted in a late move in adding Hurt back into the starting five for the Blue Devils.
The move paid off as Hurt scored six of the first 10 points for Duke as they lead 10-8 at the first media timeout. Five early turnovers from the Wolfpack resulted in an 8-0 run from Duke resulting in an NC State timeout with 11:52 on the clock with the Blue Devils ahead 19-10. The Duke run got up to 14 points before Braxton Beverly scored to making it 25-12.
Duke’s lead exploded to 20 at 33-13 with a Jeremy Roach floater in the paint. NC State continued to turn the ball over leading to Duke maintaining their large lead as the Blue Devils went into the half leading 39-21.
The start of the second half mirrored most of the first half with Matthew Hurt knocking down his fourth three-point basket pushing the Blue Devils lead to 44-21. The Wolfpack briefly cut their deficit to under 20 with a dunk from Bates before the Duke offense continued their showcase leading by as much as 23 before earning the important 00-00 road ACC win.
Hurt led all scorers with 24 points, shooting 8-10 from the floor including 6-7 from beyond the arc. Mark Williams followed with 13 points and 5 blocks. Shakeel Moore added another positive Saturday performance with 13 points, leading three Wolfpack players who finished in double figures followed by Hellems and Funderburk who added 11 each.
NC State returns to action Wednesday, February 17 as they travel to Pittsburgh for an afternoon showdown. Duke also returns to action Wednesday as they travel down I-40 to take on Wake Forest.
