WINSTON-SALEM - Sometimes it just isn't your day.
All players have off days. Ideally, though, they do not all fall simultaneously when the team is taking on the No. 6 team in the country.
"You've got to make shots, and you've got to be able to put the ball in the basket," point guard Nolan Smith said. "That's what you have to do against a good team."
Duke struggled mightily with basketball's primary objective-putting the ball through the hoop-all night in its Wednesday loss. The Demon Deacons' "pack line defense," a modified version of a man-to-man that focuses on strong help defense and forcing teams to shoot from the perimeter, was working perfectly all night, especially in the first half. Duke could not generate any penetration into the lane, and the few times the Blue Devils found someone down low, Wake Forest defenders swarmed them immediately and erased those chances with seven first-half blocks.
When the first half was all said and done, Duke was an abysmal 11-for-39 from the field and 2-for-11 from 3-point range.
"I thought our defense was really good," Demon Deacons head coach Dino Gaudio said. "It was their low field-goal percentage of the year. I thought we did a good job of guarding the 3-point line. A couple of times, [Kyle] Singler got away from us. I'm really happy for our kids."
The Blue Devils' one saving grace was their offensive rebounding. Duke was able to overcome its height disadvantage to bring down 12 offensive boards and generate 12 of its 28 first-half points on second chances.
Gaudio stressed this as an area his team needed to improve on after the break.
"It's something we talk about," Gaudio said of limiting second shots. "You've got to put a body on someone and box out. You've got to carve a little bit of space out. We need our guards rebounding for us a little bit.. We were stopping them then giving them second opportunities."
Part of the Blue Devils' struggles may have stemmed from their strenuous schedule of late. This was Duke's fifth game in 15 days, and fatigue could have been an issue. A schedule like that is a tall order for any team in the country, even one riding a 10-game winning streak that boosted it to its first No. 1 ranking in three seasons.
"We'll get open shots, and we've got to knock them down," junior Gerald Henderson said. "I'm not sure if the length affected us, but we've just got to man up and make the shots."
The Wake Forest defense responded to Gaudio's halftime speech, and the Blue Devils only recorded three more offensive rebounds for the rest of the contest. With its life preserver gone, Duke would clearly have to sink more shots.
It did.
It was not a complete turnaround-the Blue Devils still replicated their 2-for-11 shooting from downtown in the second half-but they improved their field goal percentage to 40.7. More importantly, they started to break through the Demon Deacon defense and drive down the lane more often.
"I thought our guys drove more aggressively, and we hit some shots," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his team's late game effort. "We're still not shooting the way I hope we'll be able to shoot. I thought there was a fierce determination on the part of that group of kids. That was neat to see."
Ultimately, the Blue Devils finished the game on a 20-9 run that spanned the last nine minutes of action. Despite its first-half struggles, Duke had the game tied with 2.6 seconds left, something that seemed impossible when it was down by 13 midway through the second half. In the end, though, the Blue Devils' late surge was too little, too late.
Wake Forest made one more shot, and that was all the difference.
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