It was a strange night inside Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Duke basketball team had to overcome a lot of obstacles to win its 14th straight game on Monday night.
Nearly 48 hours removed from its grinding comeback victory over Wake Forest, the No. 2 Blue Devils looked sluggish in the opening minutes against NC State, digging themselves a 13-point hole, 35-22, late in the first half.
It didn’t take long for the leaders of the ACC to respond, finishing the half on a 11-2 run to get within four, 37-33, at halftime and carried its momentum into the second half, taking a lead in less than four minutes and winning 74-64.
Strangely enough, Cooper Flagg did not score in Duke’s first half closing spurt, but he was involved in nearly everything after halftime – scoring 23 of his 28 points.
Duke (18-2, 10-0 ACC) would never surrender its lead but not for the best efforts of former UNC guard Dontrez Styles and freshman Trey Parker, who combined for 33 points for the Wolfpack.
Styles was scorching to start, putting up 13 points in the first half before foul trouble limited his time on the floor in the second half as he only scored three points, fouling out with 4:21 remaining and NC State (9-11, 2-7 ACC) trailing by one, 63-62.
Parker was just the opposite, using small yet productive minutes in the first half to be the team’s sparkplug in the second half, scoring 10 of his 15 points after halftime.
Still, it wasn’t enough to overcome Duke’s rookie duo of Flagg and Kon Knueppel although its freshman center, Khaman Maluach, had to leave the game early after vomiting on the court as Styles fouled out.
The game clinching play came from Cooper Flagg, as expected, dumping a pass off to Patrick Ngongba II – replacing the ill Maluach – for an easy layup that put Duke ahead 70-64 with 1:26 left.
Duke will get the chance to get healthy with four days off before its first matchup of the season against North Carolina (13-8, 6-3 ACC) on Saturday evening (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).