Well you don’t see games like that very often: a player threw up on the court. A student passed out courtside. And NC State hit its shots.
It was just that sort of a night as Duke won 74-64 – and it was a hard-fought game throughout.
The Wolfpack started out really hot and was up 13, 35-22 with 4:30 to play in the first half but Duke rallied and cut the lead to four at the half, 37-33.
The Blue Devils closed the first half with seven straight points then opened the second with 12 more. As impressive as State’s defense was in the first half, when Duke looked overwhelmed and frankly baffled by the ferocity of the Wolfpack’s defense, the Blue Devils gave it right back in the second as State didn’t score until freshman Trey Parker hit a shot 13:44 in.
After that, State’s offense loosened back up and while they never took the lead again, they also never were that far away.
Duke built up a 47-39 lead before Parker hit his shot and then it was a cat-and-mouse game.
Parker hit a three with 9:36 left to cut the lead to one before Cooper Flagg had a four-point play to push Duke’s lead back out to 55-50.
Then he hit another shot and blocked one on the other end and Duke was up 57-50.
State cut the lead down to 61-59 when Brandon Huntley-Hatfield converted a three point play and then cut it to one again at 63-62 when Marcus Hill had a three point play of his own with 4:40 left.
Cooper Flagg hit a pair of free throws to put Duke back up 65-62 and then basically it was game management on both ends as the Blue Devils put the game away at the free throw line.
Well there was one more basket: Flagg hit Ngongba for a layup with 1:25 left to give Duke a 70-64 lead.
As noted above, in many respects this was a strange game. NC State hit Duke in the face to start the game, which is classic Kevin Keatts. His teams are going to mug you on defense. They always do. And for part of the first half, Duke seemed uncertain of how to respond. Ultimately, however, Duke did respond.
And while State shot with uncharacteristic brilliance, shooting brilliantly in the first half and finishing with 10-22 from behind the line and 40.7 percent overall, they paid for their aggressive defense at the foul line as Duke shot 24-48 to State’s 6-7. Coincidentally, both teams shot 85.7 percent.
When Maluach got sick – it happened with 4:21 left – you could see him feeling it come on and unfortunately, presumably because he had been drinking Gatorade, the effluence was practically neon. Unfortunately, being 2025, it’s almost bound to become a meme.
That could have been a turning point in the game, but one of the nice surprises of January has been that Ngongba has become a competent backup.
We didn’t know what to expect from him, honestly. He started the season still recovering from a high school injury and seemed tentative in his first few appearances. He’s holding his own however and improving.
This is the second straight game that Duke has had to struggle with a tough defense and a different sort of scheme.
For most of the season, State has not done well offensively, something that Keatts has pointed out himself from time to time.
They really heated up though and both Parker and Dontrez Styles, the first player since the ACC began to play for both UNC and NC State, were outstanding.
Styles shot7-12/4-6 for 18. Parker shot 6-9/3-4 and finished with 15. Michael O’ Connell chipped in with nine points. Jayden Taylor had eight while Marcus Hill shot 10 percent for the game (1-10/0-1). Ben Middlebrooks only took two shots and missed both.
Cooper Flagg led Duke with 28 on 8-17/1-4 and 11-13 from the line. He also had seven rebounds and three assists and one pissed off block.
Kon Knueppel finished with 19 but he didn’t shoot well (5-15/3-10) and hit his last shot with 16:48 to go in the game.
Maluach played well before he was forced out, even if his stats look modest. He had four points and eight rebounds. We say that because he rebounded and defended well – he also had a pair of blocks – but just as importantly, he’s starting to play more instinctively on offense. And while he got pushed around at Wake Forest, against NC State, he pushed back.
Mason Gillis didn’t score a lot – just a pair of free throws – but he helped to steady his younger teammates and defended well. Caleb Foster didn’t get a lot of minutes in this one – just seven and didn’t score, but he did everything else well and with intensity. Isaiah Evans got three minutes off the bench and took one three but missed. NC State is not a great opponent for him given how slim he still is. They really beat you up.
Which leads us to something we want to talk about.
State plays with a lot of physicality. And by a lot we mean a lot. It’s fine -that’s what Keatts looks for in his players and that’s his team’s ID. Either you deal with it or you don’t.
Fine.
However, what’s not okay is how often State grabs your jersey, because in this game, at least, they did it constantly. In fact, they did it so consistently that we eventually realized that it wasn’t a coincidence: it was by design.
You hate to think that a coach would teach his players to do that, but it happened a lot. We stopped counting around seven. It’s not right and the ACC should speak to NC State about this.
Anyway, with the win, the Blue Devils move to 10-0 in the conference and 18-2 overall and get ready for UNC on Saturday. The tents are up and the stage is set. UNC will play Pitt at Pitt on Tuesday and then the focus is on Cameron. It may not be a classic Duke-UNC matchup with two Top Ten teams, but it’s still going to be very intense.
Notes – for the first part of the game, Flagg in particular seemed knocked back by State’s intense defense but he came around and took it right to them later…when you think about it, Ngongba’s growth is pretty spectacular…there was a lot of concern when Maliq Brown went out with a knee sprain but Ngongba has done a very nice job…speakng of Brown, he warmed up but didn’t play…he can’t be too far away…
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