The PNC Arena curse continued as Duke Basketball suffered a tough, 88-66 loss to NC State on Wednesday night.
Wednesday night was set up to be a trap game for the Duke Blue Devils from the beginning. PNC Arena has not been kind to Duke basketball over the years, with the Blue Devils having lost six of their last eight games there. Duke came in riding high on a 7-game winning streak, fresh off of a 34-point thrashing of Notre Dame at Cameron Indoor but NC State came out like a team that very much believes they have a chance at getting off the bubble come Selection Sunday.
Duke was largely lethargic on Wednesday, committing 13 turnovers and shooting an absolutely abysmal 10-for-22 from the free throw line. They couldn’t buy a 3-point shot either (4-for-17 from 3) and that lack of a perimeter threat gave the Wolfpack even more confidence when it came to guarding Vernon Carey Jr. aggressively, be it one-on-one or with extra pressure.
Carey’s scoring on Wednesday was nice but couldn’t do a lot to change the tide of the game with fellow freshman Matthew Hurt glued to the bench due to a combination of poor play and foul trouble. Sophomore point guard and team leader Tre Jones turned in his usual all-around effort but another night of poor shooting masked what would’ve been a gusty win by Duke after falling too far behind.
Duke went into the half down by 16 points, their largest halftime deficit since 2016. Despite cutting the lead down to 11 in the second half, the Blue Devils never held a lead in this game and trailed by as much as 27 at one point. Coach K referenced Xbox video games quite a bit in an intriguing postgame press conference in which he mostly chalked it up to “one of those nights” while also heaping a ton of praise on NC State and later on, Markell Johnson.
Mike Krzyzewski heading back to the locker room after his press conference and walks up to Markell Johnson, hugs his and says “you played a great game... not a good game but a great game.” #DUKEvsNCST @ABC11_WTVD pic.twitter.com/TPFyrpXriZ
— Bridget Condon (@BridgetCondon_) February 20, 2020
Expect Duke basketball to come out firing on all cylinders against Virginia Tech on Saturday, as they will have a bit of time to think about the loss. Before Duke files this one away and heads back to Cameron Indoor, let’s dive into our biggest takeaways from the Blue Devils’ shocking blowout loss to NC State.