RALEIGH, N.C.—With the AP Preseason Player of the Year controlling the post and several talented players complementing him on the perimeter, the Blue Devils were supposed to be a team that could beat you by dominating the paint or winning the battles on the perimeter. Or both.
That was the blueprint to success for this Duke squad, and it had worked in each of the first 14 games. The Blue Devils ran their offense through Jahlil Okafor, who outmuscled his way past several teams and freed up space for his teammates on the wing. On the rare occasions when teams were able to slow him down, Okafor’s teammates picked up the slack and carried the team to victory.
Except Sunday against N.C. State, the roles were reversed.
No. 2 Duke suffered its first loss of the season Sunday afternoon in an 87-75 upset at PNC Arena, where the Blue Devils have now dropped three straight. The Wolfpack took the lead near the end of the first half and never looked back, holding the lead for every second after halftime.
“We responded okay [to being down at half for the first time],” guard Rasheed Sulaimon said. “The second half played out a little bit before they made that big run and I think we just let up and they just kept going. We couldn’t get out of it and they opened up the lead to 19 at one point. Any time you get on the road and you’re down by that much, it’s hard to come back.”
Instead of Okafor and fellow freshman Justise Winslow throwing down monstrous dunks, it was those adorned in white and red—BeeJay Anya, Abdul-Malik Abu and Desmon Lee—who cashed in wide-open looks at the rim and frequently sent the crowd into a frenzy with thunderous jams.
And it was not guards Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook or Rasheed Sulaimon who were feeding these open looks down low and pouring in shots from the outside, but rather the N.C. State duo of Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner who made the key plays and big shots from the outside that swung the game.
Lacey and Turner combined to put up 37 points, highlighted by shooting a staggering 9-of-14 from 3-point range. The Blue Devils gave Matt Jones his first start of the season in the hopes that he could slow down Lacey, but even the athletic combination of Jones and Sulaimon couldn’t slow down the Wolfpack guards.
“They made some tough shots, but at the same time we gave them some easy ones early that gave them confidence,” Sulaimon said. “That’s on us. But they did a great job and they made shots.”
The Wolfpack totaled 10 blocks on the afternoon, led by four apiece from Anya and 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Kyle Washington. N.C. State’s quartet of big men rotated and hounded Okafor with constant double teams, applying enough pressure to throw him off rhythm.
Even though Okafor finished with 23 points and 12 boards, much of that success came during Duke’s fast start or desperate comeback attempt—when the game was all but decided. N.C. State outscored Duke 40-26 in the paint, gaining an edge in an area where the Blue Devil offense loves to operate.
The Wolfpack also put on an impressive display of interior passing, tallying 18 assists on the afternoon and earning several easy looks from point-blank range. The Blue Devils had no answer for the Wolfpack’s big bodies—especially Anya, who had 10 crucial points in the second half to help build the lead—leading head coach Mike Krzyzewski to make an assessment of N.C. State that one of Duke’s first 14 opponents could have said about the Blue Devils.
“If you double [down low], you’ll be killed,” Krzyzewski said. “I mean, we got killed anyways.”
With less than six minutes left to play, the Blue Devils trailed 72-53 and it looked as if the game was getting out of hand. Then they responded with an 11-0 run to cut the lead to eight and provide a glimmer of hope.
But the Wolfpack responded and closed out the game, as Duke has done on countless occasions this year. Another uncontested slam from Anya and a tip-in from Abu iced the game and knocked the Blue Devils down from the ranks of the unbeatens.
“[We learned] what we have to do better and differently, what will work and what won’t work,” Tyus Jones said. “There’s a lot of stuff we can improve on, a lot of little things, and we have a good group and we’ll come together and get back to it.”
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