The last time Duke hosted the Demon Deacons on their home floor, an unlikely hero rose up to lead the Blue Devils to victory.
Now a household name, sophomore Grayson Allen hasn't quite matched that effort, but he's still driving the offense.
Allen leads No. 17 Duke with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the floor as the Blue Devils leads Wake Forest 35-34 at halftime at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Marshall Plumlee has followed close behind with 9 points of his own and 10 rebounds, closing in on his sixth double-double of the season.
The Blue Devil defense forced 13 Demon Deacon turnovers, which the offense converted into 15 points on the other end. The extra possessions have been key for a Duke squad that has struggled mightily shooting the ball from the floor, with just a 29 percent mark through the first 20 minutes.
The Blue Devils got hot in the early goings of Tuesday night's contest, with junior captain Matt Jones kicking things off with a corner trey. The DeSoto, Texas, native forced a turnover on the next possession, which he dished to Allen for the quick layup to help Duke jump out to an early 5-0 lead.
After dealing with the backlash of his tripping scandal last week against Florida State, Allen became a bit of a target early in the half. At 15:25 minutes, the Jacksonville, Fla., native caught a piece of a Wake Forest pass and looked primed to take it all the way to the rim, but was fouled hard on his way up by Demon Deacon freshman Bryant Crawford and crashed hard to the floor.
Wake Forest enjoyed a bit of a run from there. A series of quick layups and a lapse in the Blue Devil defense resulted in a tie game with 13:45 to go in the half, but Duke quickly regained its composure. By the under-12 media timeout, the Blue Devils had extended their lead back to three.
After an extended scoring drought for both sides, Allen broke through for a contested layup and was fouled on the way up. He converted on the three-point play and freshman Derryck Thornton drew the charge on the next trip down the court to energize the Duke crowd.
The Blue Devils extended their lead by as much as nine points, but a 2-of-12 shooting stretch from the floor allowed Wake Forest to crawl its way back into the game. At the under-8 minute media timeout, Duke led by just four points. But the Blue Devils regained momentum with an emphatic Allen slam followed by another from senior captain Marshall Plumlee to extend the lead back to 8 points with just over five minutes to play.
Here are some observations from the half:
- Wake Forest leading scorer Devin Thomas's struggles at Cameron Indoor Stadium have not continued, as he led the team with nine points and seven rebounds thus far in the contest. Thomas's only two career scoreless outings in ACC play have been at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- Future Blue Devil Harry Giles was in attendance for Tuesday night's matchup. Giles is the No. 1 overall player in the Class of 2017 ESPN Top 100.
- The Blue Devil freshmen struggled in the opening period, with Luke Kennard, Chase Jeter and Thornton going a combined 0-of-6 from the field and Brandon Ingram shooting just 3-of-12 from the floor.
- The Blue Devils struggled from the field Tuesday night, shooting just 29 percent to Wake Forests' 48 percent.
- Duke kept it tight on the glass in the first half, trailing the Demon Deacons 21-20 in the rebounding battle.
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