WINSTON-SALEM -- The No. 16 men's basketball team was missing several key ingredients in its 74-64 loss to No. 14 Wake Forest in Lawrence Joel Coliseum Wednesday night.
There was no inside game, which Duke has relied on throughout the season. The help defense, a Duke basketball trademark, could not be found. And in the end, there was no victory, as the Blue Devils fell to 0-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, 9-5 overall. Wake Forest improved to 9-1, 2-0 in the ACC.
"We prided ourselves on our inside game all season long," interim head coach Pete Gaudet said. "It was disappointing to look at our inside game and to see that it was basically nonexistent."
The loss marked the first time since 1982 that the Blue Devils have opened their conference schedule with three straight losses. It is Duke's first three-game losing streak since 1989, when the Blue Devils fell to North Carolina, Wake Forest and N.C. State.
In order to win the game, Duke knew it would have to stop the dynamic duo of guard Randolph Childress and center Tim Duncan. Duke managed to shut down Childress in the first half and Duncan in the second stanza, but their combined effort of 24 points for Childress and 18 for Duncan proved to be the difference.
"I said before the game that Duncan could be as good as any player in the league, and tonight he was tremendous," Gaudet said.
The Blue Devils began the game strongly by riding on the shoulders of sophomore guard Jeff Capel. Capel scored Duke's first nine points on a trio of three-pointers as Duke took a 20-11 lead nine minutes into the game. But Capel's amazing shooting did not last, as Duke compiled a woeful 27 percent shooting percentage in the first half. A Rusty LaRue three-pointer gave Wake a 28-27 advantage at the half.
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, the second half became a virtual repeat of the first. This time it was freshman Trajan Langdon who began the half on a hot streak, scoring the team's first 10 points and evening the game at 37-37. But Wake went on a 20-11 run over the next eight minutes, and the Blue Devils were never able to recover.
"It seemed that nothing could go right during that period," Duke guard Kenny Blakeney said. "We really lost control of the game at that point."
"We're going through a tough stretch right now, and our movement on the offensive end wasn't great," Langdon said. "We had a stretch in the game where we only got one shot off in eight trips down the floor, and that just shows that we're not doing well on the offensive end."
The team never established the strong inside game, and center Cherokee Parks had his worst game of the season. Parks was 2-of-14 from the field and scored only eight points, the first time he hadn't reached double figures this season. Since Duncan's arrival in the ACC last year, Parks has shot just 25 percent in his three games against Wake.
The loss of Krzyzewski has hindered the Blue Devils during their losing stretch. But to the players, that's no excuse for their recent performances.
"That passion isn't there that we usually have," Parks said. "I don't know how we are going to find that, but it's something that we need to do."
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