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Notebook: Duke makes necessary adjustments in powering through NC State

Jacey Zembalby: Jacey Zembal10 hours agoJaceyZembal

Duke used a steady offensive attack in the first half, but then exploded after halftime in perplexing NC State on Monday.

Duke in particular spotted up in the corners for three-point shots, and it helped them go 8 of 17 in the first half of the eventual 93-64 victory at the Lenovo Center.

No. 1-ranked Duke improved to 28-2 overall and 16-1 in the ACC, and NC State fell to 19-11 overall and 10-7 in the ACC. The Wolfpack have lost five of their last six games, and host Stanford at 2:15 p.m. Saturday on The CW Network.

Five different Duke players hit three-pointers in the first half to build a 47-30 halftime lead, with freshman power forward Nikolas Khamenia splashing one in from the left corner to end the half.

If the first half was a slow drip, the second wasn’t. Duke came out hot and buried NC State with a 15-5 run to take a dominating 62-35 lead with 15:27 left in the game.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer said unselfish play and understanding mismatches is what has worked this season for the Blue Devils. He said it’s unique in having five returning players mesh with five freshmen.

“We’ve seen a lot of different game plans,” Scheyer said. “The IQ of this group to understand and figure out different ways to attack doubles, to attack zone, we’ve seen switching.

“As long as we continue to trust the pass, play together. When that ball is moving man, that has been a big difference the last part of the year — 21 assists tonight.”

Duke finished shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 11 of 28 on three-pointers for 39.3 percent. Freshman power forward Cameron Boozer led the way with 26 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

“He’s physical, he plays with force, and he is just a tremendous player and talent,” NCSU coach Will Wade said. “How hard he plays and how physical he plays. There is not a lot that you can do with him. That is why he’ll be a high, high draft pick.

“Their pieces and their parts fit.”

NC State has had a propensity defensively for an opponent to exceed past performances this season. Freshman small forward Dame Sarr fit the bill Monday. He went 3 of 6 on three-pointers with 11 of his 16 points coming the first half, and added eight rebounds.Sarr entered the game averaging 5.8 points per game and shooting 31.9 percent on three-pointers.

NC State couldn’t keep up from deep, especially in the second half, and Wade knows there are levels to things in the ACC right now.

“These guys are in a different weight class than we are right now,” Wade said. “We know where we have to get to. We can see that live and in person today.”

NC State plays zone defense

NC State turned to a zone defense for extensive minutes against Duke, but it didn’t work.

The zone also put NCSU senior center Ven-Allen Lubin in difficult positions and helped lead to him getting into foul trouble. Wade figured the Wolfpack would give up 120 points if they played man-to-man, so he gambled in mixing in the zone defense, which he said worked for the first eight minutes.

Wade was inspired by a football book, “The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL.”

“I saw it on my shelf and pulled it out when I was at home Saturday night,” Wade said. “I was like, ‘We have to try something different.’ It probably wasn’t a great team to try it against. When we went man, we fouled them on almost every possession.”

NC State senior point guard Quadir Copeland played zone defense when he played at Syracuse his freshman year under coach Jim Boeheim. NC State will continue to play some zone in the future.

“They got corner three-point shooters,” Copeland said. “It wasn’t no scheme. We were in a zone and that was the open shots — the shots we were giving up. It was effective in the beginning and then they adjustments.”

NC State has been poor on defense during the five losses since Feb. 9 — allowing 118 at Louisville, 77 vs. Miami, 90 at Virginia and 96 in overtime at Notre Dame. The lone win was when the Wolfpack completely shut down short-handed UNC 82-58 on Feb. 17.

Will Wade turns to the bench

After Duke busted the game open, NC State turned to Darrion Williams and four reserves.

Center Scottie Ebube, small forward Terrance Arceneaux, freshman shooting guard Matt Able and senior guard Alyn Breed joined Williams on the floor for several minutes in the second half.

Wade knew that Ebube would put forth the effort, even if he might foul out while doing it, which he did with 11:49 left in the game in 11 minutes of action.

“I thought he [Ebube] brought physicality, energy, everyday what we see in practice,” Wade said. “He’s somebody where we wanted to look at a lot of different guys tonight.”

With Lubin saddled with four fouls and Ebube fouled out, freshman post player Musa Sagnia was tasked with trying to slow down Boozer/Ngongba. Boozer ended up with a bad scrape on his right arm from battling in the paint.

“It was some point in the second half, one of their big men, the Wolfpack got me,” Boozer said. “They got long claws. It just goes to show our fight and the toughness we brought to the game.”

Holloman was limited to four minutes and Lubin played 12 minutes among the starters.

Five home losses with one game remaining

NC State goes into Senior Day against Stanford next Saturday with four home losses in the ACC, plus Kansas during the non-conference slate.

Wade entered this season with never losing more than four home games at his previous stops — Tennessee-Chattanooga, Virginia Commonwealth, LSU and McNeese State.

It surpasses Wade’s first year at LSU when he lost three SEC home games and a non-conference loss against Stephen F. Austin in 2017-18. LSU lost against No. 17-ranked Kentucky, and unranked Alabama and Georgia in SEC action.

Plus/minus

Ven-Allen Lubin — minus-6
Alyn Breed — minus-7
Terrance Arceneaux — minus-7
Musa Sagnia — minus-8
Tre Holloman — minus-14
Scottie Ebube — minus-15
Matt Able — minus-20
Quadir Copeland — minus-22
Darrion Williams — minus-24
Paul McNeil — minus-24

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