The N.C. State Wolfpack (16-7, 5-5 ACC) dropped its third straight Atlantic Coast Conference game Thursday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium against the Duke Blue Devils (20-2, 7-2 ACC), 98-85.
Duke jumped out to an early 20-5 lead over the State and eventually extended its first half lead to 20 points with 7:08 to play, 41-21. Despite a late game run made by the Wolfpack, it could never fully recover.
The Blue Devils wasted no time getting on the board to open the game. Duke gained possession on the opening tipoff and freshman guard Rasheed Sulaimon drove straight in to the basket from the left side for a layup and the foul. He would hit his free throw to give the Devils their first lead, 3-0.
NCSU freshman guard Tyler Lewis made his first career start for the Pack, filling in for the injured junior guard Lorenzo Brown for the second straight game. On the Wolfpack’s first possession, Lewis put State on the board on a jumper off of an assist from freshman guard Rodney Purvis.
From there, Duke then went on an 8-0 run on a pair of 3-pointers and a slam dunk from senior big man Mason Plumlee.
Once again, Lewis stepped up, hitting his second field goal of the game off of another Purvis assist and drew the foul. He hit his free throw for his fifth point, making it an 11-5 Blue Devil lead.
It seemed as if that would be enough to spark the Wolfpack, but Duke went on another run, taking the lead out to 20-5.
After a made free throw by Calvin Leslie, Duke grabbed the rebound off of his second attempt. Plumlee threw another dunk off of a feed from Sulaimon, forcing N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried to call his second timeout with 12:35 remaining in the half.
The Wolfpack made significant adjustments in the second quarter, pulling within 12 by the 4:36 mark, but the Blue Devil lead was pushed back out to 21 by halftime, leading 58-37. Duke hit 10-of-17 from three-point-land in the half, four coming from senior guard Seth Curry.
The two teams came out playing with ferocity in the second half, but Duke was able to maintain its lead for the first eight minutes of the game.
With both teams fighting foul trouble, N.C. State jumped right back into the mix, trailing by 14 by the under-12 timeout. From there, the opponents battled back and forth for the next six and a half minutes.
With 5:17 remaining, junior forward Richard Howell made a layup to pull the game within 11 points, the closest the game had been since the 15:15 mark in the first half.
After Leslie pulled down a rebound off of a miss jumpshot by Plumlee, Howell pulled up a jumper on the other end of the court to bring the Duke lead to single digits with 4:37 remaining.
Less than a minute later while Howell possessed the ball, he drew the flagrant foul for his fifth. Plumlee knocked down both free throws.
A minute and a half later, Leslie drew his fifth foul as well, putting State’s most dominant inside players on the bench.
With 1:09 remaining, senior forward Scott Wood drained a 3-pointer to pull the Pack within eight, but that would be as close as State could pull within.
The Wolfpack will return to action 1 p.m. Sunday at Clemson.
