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It’s been a little while since NC State has looked the part of a top-10 team, for various reasons, and that continued Monday night against Duke. The Blue Devils scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed en route to a 70-65 win over the Wolfpack. State has lost three of its last four.
Four Factors
... | NC State | Duke |
---|---|---|
... | NC State | Duke |
eFG% | 51.9 | 49.2 |
TO% | 24.1 | 12.0 |
OR% | 27.6 | 21.9 |
FTR | 25.0 | 23.7 |
Pace and Effiency
Team | Pts | Poss | OFF_EFF | DEF_EFF |
---|---|---|---|---|
Team | Pts | Poss | OFF_EFF | DEF_EFF |
NC State | 65 | 66 | 98.5 | 106.1 |
Duke | 70 | 66 | 106.1 | 98.5 |
This team has been on the turnover-prone side all season, but the mistakes have been more pronounced of late, and on Monday they canceled out a pretty good shooting effort. The Blue Devils finished +8 in the turnover category, which was a significant edge in a close game. NC State couldn’t overcome it.
State turned the ball over on nearly a quarter of its possessions, this after turning the ball over about 30% of the time at Miami on Thursday. The Pack was lucky to get out of Miami with a win, but against a much better Duke team, the result not surprisingly was different.
There ain’t much else to say other than that NC State is in a slump—the team hasn’t played well since it beat Virginia Tech back on Feb. 6, and that’s disheartening. State would still be a top-16 overall NCAA tournament seed if the season ended today, but now has to worry about that position becoming more tenuous.
Duke is a good team and has played well lately but if NC State is playing well, it takes care of business at home. They gotta get this sorted out quickly.
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