RALEIGH—The ninth-ranked Blue Devils made the short trip across the Research Triangle Monday night for a date with N.C. State, looking to end its conference road schedule with a win. Things haven’t proven to be so easy through 20 minutes here at PNC Arena, though, with Duke leading the Wolfpack 33-30 heading into the locker room:
Best served cold
They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but cold was perhaps a better way to describe Duke’s shooting at the start of Monday night’s game. Just after the turn of the year between 2022 and 2023, head coach Jon Scheyer’s inaugural Blue Devil squad made the trip to Raleigh for its first of two matchups against N.C. State last season. While the second installment at Cameron Indoor Stadium went Duke’s way, the first, well, did not. The Blue Devils failed to score for nearly the first eight minutes of the game all while conceding 15, leaving the first half down 44-22 en route to a 24-point wallop just over a year ago.
PNC Arena was similarly hostile to the Blue Devils Monday night, who took more than three minutes to get on the board and made just one of their first seven shots. All the while, N.C. State racked up points on the other end, racing out to a quick 9-2 lead before Duke finally got rolling. The Wolfpack were then the ones who went cold, enduring a torrid four-minute scoring drought as the Blue Devils scored nine unanswered to jump in front.
Proctor finding form
While the rest of Duke’s guards — and team, really — struggled to find any consistent offensive mojo, sophomore Tyrese Proctor was one of Scheyer’s main outlets in both directing and executing plays. The Sydney native led all Blue Devils with 11 points in the opening frame on 60% shooting from downtown, playing all 20 minutes of the contest despite ample substitutions at other positions. Proctor’s three turnovers soured the narrative a bit, but his relative assuredness and ability to hold the N.C. State guard room to ineffectual-at-best numbers with his on-ball defense proved vital in Duke’s effort.
New blood
Midway through the first half Scheyer introduced two of his freshmen into the lineup — Sean Stewart and TJ Power. Scheyer said after Duke’s win against Louisville last week that his lineup would begin to favor size down the stretch amid the injury-induced absence of freshman guard Caleb Foster. The Power-Stewart duo looked phenomenal during their extended stretch together, combining for seven total points and four rebounds. Stewart proved vital on the defensive end while Power immediately justified his inclusion as an offensive threat. Although just one of Power’s three tries from deep fell through, the ones that missed only barely rimmed out and were scooped up by his teammates for second-chance points, helping maintain Duke’s lead in enemy territory.
Crash the boards
Even if it took the Blue Devils a few minutes to get their feet under them, one area in which they consistently excelled was on the offensive glass. Duke finished the first half with 14 offensive boards to its name, dwarfing N.C. State’s mark of six. While the discrepancy is notable, many of these rebounds came because the Blue Devils struggled to find any real consistency in their shooting. Duke shot well below par from both the floor and from three — 33.3% and 25%, respectively — with usual hot hands Jeremy Roach and Jared McCain unable to dominate the way they have become accustomed to.
Player of the half: DJ Burns Jr.
Duke may be the one with a Preseason All-American on its roster in sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, but it was the Wolfpack’s own big man — DJ Burns Jr. — who dominated inside in the first half. The 6-foot-9 Rock Hill, S.C., native made his presence known in the post with an eclectic mix of size and silk that the Blue Devils struggled to contain. Burns was responsible for 15 of N.C. State’s 30 first-half points, five of its opening nine and was equally as imposing defensively, holding the tandem of Mark Mitchell and Filipowski to just three points between them.
Filipowski also got into some early foul trouble and was sent promptly to the bench with two infractions by the 12-minute mark, allowing Burns to match up with graduate center Ryan Young instead. To Young’s credit, his time on the floor was productive, but the big-man matchup was firmly in the home team’s favor, helping to keep the Wolfpack competitive as Duke’s offense caught fire.
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Andrew Long is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.