N.C. State students may like their alcohol, but Thursday night, the No. 24 Wolfpack certainly wanted a little less Booze--at least during the game, that is.
Taking advantage of N.C. State's smaller, less experienced post players, Duke center Carlos Boozer wreaked havoc on State, scoring a career-high 32 points on an efficient 13-of-14 performance from the field, pacing No. 1 Duke (23-1, 11-1 in the ACC) to a 108-71 drubbing of its rivals from Raleigh. Boozer's domination in the interior proved to be a lethal blow to N.C. State (18-7, 7-5), which hung tough early, but was annihilated in the second half.
"There are No.1-ranked teams in sports in any given years, and then there are awesome No. 1-ranked teams. And tonight we witnessed an awesome basketball team on all cylinders," N.C. State coach Herb Sendek said after the game. "I thought our guys did some exceptionally good things, especially in the first half, but were outplayed and outmanned tonight. Certainly in the second half, we had no ability to respond to Duke's dominance."
After ending the first half with a 21-8 run and taking a 49-39 lead into halftime, the Blue Devils halted any chance of a close game with fluidity on the offensive end and hard-nosed pressure on defense. By the time the buzzer sounded for the first television timeout of the second half, the Blue Devils had extended their lead to 16 points and seemed to be ready for a patented Duke run.
What transpired next, however, was not merely a run, but rather an outright explosion, as Duke continued to score off Wolfpack turnovers and punch the ball inside to Boozer in its half-court set. Reeling from tendinitis in his left leg, N.C. State senior Anthony Grundy was confined to the bench for much of the second half, and the absence of his long arms and quick feet on the perimeter allowed Duke's Jason Williams and Chris Duhon to penetrate at will.
The result was a number of easy drives to the basket for Duke's guards, which were converted into a bombardment of layups for the 6-foot-9 Alaskan, who recorded 17 second-half points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field.
"With Carlos down there, he's like a black hole--he sucks everything up," Duke junior Mike Dunleavy said. "If you throw it to him, he's going to get one of those paws on it, and he's going to catch it and finish. It's nice having a big target like that, and it's also nice having teammates around you who demand attention."
While Boozer scored off brilliant feeds into the post by his teammates on one end of the court, N.C. State struggled to match the Blue Devils on the other end. The Wolfpack was held to 12-of-30 shooting from the floor in the second half after shooting 62.5 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Unable to penetrate Duke's stifling defenders in the backcourt, the Wolfpack could not get many easy shots for its most productive offensive players, freshmen Julius Hodge and Illian Evtimov, the senior Grundy and sophomore Marcus Melvin, who only hit 1-of-2 shots in the second half after going a perfect 4-for-4 in the first half.
Melvin's second-half inactivity was crucial in the Wolfpack's inability to hang with the top-ranked Blue Devils, because it was the hot-shooting center who kept his team in the game early. Melvin gave State its first points of the game on successive rim-rattling dunks during the Wolfpack's first two offensive possessions, and followed these easy baskets with a layup and a jumper that gave the visiting team a 13-6 lead four minutes into the ballgame.
This working margin was short-lived, though, as Duke freshman Daniel Ewing entered the game and immediately jumpstarted the Blue Devils, knocking down a three-pointer with 14:37 left in the half and giving Duke a 17-15 advantage on a layup with 11:46 remaining. In all, Ewing provided 11 points and five assists to the Blue Devil cause.
"I tried to bring a lot of energy in the first half," Ewing said. "I saw that we were struggling a little bit. I just try to come in, and bring a presence to our team."
With their victory over the previously pumped-up Wolfpack-who will, in all likelihood, drop out of the top 25 after being ranked for the first time in over two years-the Blue Devils now set their sights on No. 3 Maryland. Not only will Duke aim to repeat its incredible performance of a month ago, but it will strive to wrap up another ACC regular-season championship in the process. Right now, Duke and Maryland stand tied for first place heading into the much awaited Sunday contest.
"Cole Field House has been one of the great venues in sports and college basketball in particular," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will be making his final visit to Cole Field House this weekend. "It has seen some amazing games and great players. It will certainly see some great players on Sunday, and hopefully it will see an amazing game."
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