With its NCAA Tournament hopes on life support and desperately needing a win, the NC State men’s basketball team picked up the marquee win it’s needed all season Wednesday night, knocking off No. 6 Duke 88-66 in front of a raucous PNC Arena crowd for its largest margin of victory over a top-10 team since 1965.
Behind season-saving performances from senior guard Markell Johnson and redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels, and a dominant second half by redshirt junior D.J. Funderburk, the Wolfpack (17-9, 8-7 ACC) jumped out to a big first-half lead and never looked back, staving off multiple Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3 ACC) runs, as Johnson and Daniels were always there for a big bucket or Funderburk for a huge rebound.
“It’s a very good win for us,” said NC State head coach Kevin Keatts. “It’s a win we needed. Obviously, we had just lost one on the road. I’m excited for our guys. We talked about, the last couple days, what a great opportunity this would be, and we stepped up for the challenge.”
With NC State’s tournament hopes on the line and its 23-point lead dwindling by the minute as the second half wore on, it was time for the Wolfpack’s star to be its star. Johnson worked around a screen and pulled up from deep, burying his fifth 3-pointer of the night to put NC State up 14 and send the red-and-white crowd into a frenzy. Johnson’s heroics kickstarted a 17-6, run as the Wolfpack pulled away and cemented its biggest and most important victory of the season.
“He was a leader,” Keatts said. “Man, he was a really good point guard tonight — got everybody involved, scored when we needed to, played the bulk of the game, didn’t have that many defensive breakdowns. I’m proud of him.”
NC State came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, starting the game on a 14-4 run, with Daniels accounting for eight of those points. Daniels was all over the place in the first half, finding twine on floaters in the lane, baseline runners and layups through contact. But it was a play he didn’t score on that emphasized his impact. Off a bad pass, Daniels leaped and saved the ball from going out of bounds, tossing it behind his back to Funderburk, who slashed to the rim for a bucket.
“We just tried to start out fast,” Daniels said. “Everybody on this team knows how much work we put in and what we can do when we’re making shots and playing as a team. That’s what we did tonight, just playing with a lot of energy on both sides of the ball, and that was the result.”
Johnson did what he does best in the first half, at one point hitting back-to-back huge 3-pointers. He first worked around a screen and knocked down a 3-pointer, then lost his man and drained a stepback 3 on the next possession to put NC State up 15 and electrify the PNC Arena crowd.
It was the Johnson and Daniels show in the first half, as the duo combined for 33 of the Wolfpack’s 44 points. Perhaps the most important of all were the final three. Duke guard Tre Jones dropped in a layup with just a few seconds remaining on the clock to cut the score to 41-29, and as NC State fans filed to the section exits for pee breaks and Dippin’ Dots, Johnson took the inbound pass, dribbled up to halfcourt and did what he’s already done twice this season: banked in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, putting NC State up 15 at halftime.
“I just shoot them and make them,” Johnson said. “I shoot them every day after practice. I’m just going to keep shooting them.”
After NC State rode the momentum of Johnson’s halfcourt heave, a hot start to the half gave the Wolfpack a 23-point lead. But it was never going to be a cakewalk for the Pack, and in the blink of an eye, the Blue Devils surged back, going on an 11-2 run with Jones leading the way. Duke drilled into the Wolfpack’s lead, cutting it down to 11 and seizing momentum as NC State struggled to hold down the top-10 Blue Devils.
But Johnson’s 3-pointers turned the game around, and the Wolfpack outscored Duke 27-16 the rest of the way, icing the game and securing its spot on the NCAA Tournament “bubble” for the remainder of the season. Coming off a disappointing road loss to ACC bottomfeeder Boston College, NC State’s NCAA Tournament hopes looked bleak. Not anymore.
“We were coming off a loss to Boston College, [and] we just wanted to get back on the winning side,” Johnson said. “We had a focus … as soon as we really got back from Boston College. We knew we had to lock in and really defend.”
Johnson’s best performance of his career came at the most opportune time possible, as the veteran guard finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Daniels had the best game of his career as well, finishing with 25 points, nine rebounds and three assists. But the Pack’s second-half stand as Duke fought and clawed its way back wouldn’t have been possible without Funderburk’s huge second half. The Cleveland native had 17 points and six rebounds in the last 20 minutes as he won the one-on-one battle with Duke’s star forward Vernon Carey Jr.
“We have another game coming up, a big game at home against Florida State and another big game after that,” Funderburk said. “Once we get through this long stretch of tough teams, then our opportunity is going to be seized for sure.”
NC State will be back in action Saturday, when it hosts No. 8 Florida State in another top-10 showdown at PNC Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on the ACC Network.
