Julius Hodge drove down the lane with his team clinging to a 45-43 lead with just under 17 minutes to go. He went up to shoot, but Daniel Ewing stuck his hand in and stripped the ball away for one of his three steals in the game. He collected the ball and hit Sean Dockery in stride for a layup, tying the game for the first time since the opening minutes.
Duke (12-0, 2-0 in the ACC) and N.C. State (10-5, 0-2) traded points until Shelden Williams muscled up a short layin from the right block to level the score at 48. Then, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils scored on each of their next nine possessions during the subsequent five-and-a-half minutes and took a 67-59 lead they never relinquished on their way to a 86-74 win.
“We showed a lot more poise,” said head coach Mike Krzyzewski of his team’s offensive efficiency in the second half. “More guys touched the ball. We moved it a little bit from side to side. In the first half we were kind of staggered.”
After managing just two shots in the first half, Williams connected on 7-of-10 attempts and scored 18 of his 22 points in the second period as Duke’s halftime adjustments got him more involved.
“In the second half what we did is started him high and got him low,” Krzyzewski said. “Bringing him down was able to get us some more stuff. He showed really good poise in there, and I think he was 6-for-6 from the line too.”
The N.C. State defense honed in on Williams and J.J. Redick particularly in the opening period, when they were limited to 10 points combined. Duke’s bench picked up the slack, adding valuable contributions from DeMarcus Nelson, Dave McClure and Patrick Johnson. Nelson bounced back from a disappointing performance against Temple by scoring 15 points and grabbing four rebounds.
“That’s why we are a team,” Nelson said. “At any given moment any one of us can go off and have a huge game. N.C. State tried to really take away J.J. and really tried to take away Shelden, and it gave opportunities for myself and Lee Melchionni and Dave McClure to step up. We worked all season, we worked all week to be put in this situation. We stepped up to the plate and hit a home run tonight, we all played big.”
Despite what Krzyzewski called a poorly executed half, the Blue Devils trailed by just three at the break. Duke was able to keep Hodge scoreless until just 90 seconds remained in the half, however, and Ilian Evtimov scored just two points in the period. Hodge added a couple of baskets and some free throws down the stretch but struggled from the field over the course of the night and turned the ball over five times against Ewing’s defense.
Duke is one of the nation’s four remaining undefeated teams and will return to action Sunday against Virginia in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Notes:
Redick failed to reach double-digit scoring for the first time in the past 17 games, ending the second longest streak in the ACC.... Ewing won his 100th career game as a Blue Devil.... Duke shot 15-for-20 from inside the arc in the second half.... Melchionni’s 16 points were a career-high as he shot 6-for-9.... Williams picked up his third foul with 19 minutes remaining in the game, but did not commit another one.... The win snapped a two-game skid against the Wolfpack at the RBC Center.
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