Duke 73, NC State 56

Box Score

NC StateFour Factors
eFG%48.0Turnover Rate31.4Off Reb Rate50.0FTA/FGA21.6DukeFour Factors
eFG%57.0Turnover Rate13.2Off Reb Rate32.3FTA/FGA21.1

 Pts Poss Off_Eff Def_Eff
Duke 73 60.5 120.7 92.6
NCSU 56 60.5 92.6 120.7

-- Duke shot 88.5% in the second half, allowing them to score infinity billion points (give or take) per possession in the final 20 minutes. We're somewhat to blame for a lazy defensive effort (which I thought was awful all night; they just happened to miss their open shots in the opening period), but it was also typical Duke doing their hey we're playing State so let's get preposterously hot and make Steven want to hurt puppies thing. And I love puppies!

-- With the Wolfpack down three and the game clearly slipping away, Tracy Smith finally blew some shit up in the form of a bucket and a foul; unfortunately, he missed the free throw and failed to spark anyone else on the team, as NC State shot 1-10 and committed five turnovers over the last eight minutes. Three consecutive turnovers between the 5:07 and 4:08 marks decisively shifted the answer to the question "are we doomed?" from "most likely" to "holy god yes please let this end."

-- Those last eight minutes reminded me of this game.

-- The turnover percentages in our first four ACC games: 27.8, 23.6, 28.6, 31.4. Ken Tysiac noted this last night:

How bad was N.C. State's start? Thanks to three straight turnovers by Farnold Degand to open the game, the ball didn't cross the 3-point arc on the side of the court the Wolfpack was attacking for the game's first 2 minutes, 12 seconds.