Cooper Flagg scored 23 of his 28 points in the second half as No. 2 Duke rallied past North Carolina State to win 74-64 on Monday night in Durham, N.C.
Kon Knueppel’s 19 points and Sion James’ 13 points also boosted the Blue Devils (18-2, 10-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). Duke, which came back from a 13-point deficit, will take a 14-game winning streak into a Saturday matchup against visiting North Carolina.
Duke used a 19-0 run spanning the two halves to surge ahead, with NC State going scoreless for the first six minutes after the break.
Dontrez Styles scored 18 points before fouling out with more than four minutes left for NC State (9-11, 2-7). Trey Parker scored 15 points off the bench, Ben Middlebrooks posted 10 points and Michael O’Connell had nine points as the Wolfpack lost their fifth game in a row.
It was the only scheduled meeting of the season between the teams after the Wolfpack upset Duke twice last March, including a shocker that sent NC State to the Final Four.
Duke is 10-0 in ACC play for the first time in 17 years.
The Blue Devils shot 24-for-28 from the free-throw line compared to NC State’s 6-for-7.
NC State was 0-for-9 with three turnovers before scoring in the second half, by then facing a 45-37 deficit.
The Wolfpack’s first free-throw attempts came with 11:06 remaining when Marcus Hill made a one to close the gap to 49-45.
After NC State got within one, Flagg’s four-point play and jumper pushed Duke to a 57-50 edge.
Hill’s three-point play moved NC State within 63-62 before Styles fouled out on the next possession, with 4:21 remaining. Duke center Khaman Maluach threw up on the court, causing a delay for the clean-up.
The Blue Devils pulled away again by scoring the next five points, a stretch that featured Flagg hitting two foul shots and a layup.
Duke shaved a 13-point deficit to 37-33 thanks to an 11-2 run to end the first half.
NC State, which entered the game shooting 30.5 percent from 3-point range, drilled 7 of 12 long-range shots in the opening half. Styles had 13 points by the break.
Flagg, who earlier in the day was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Week for the eighth time (this time sharing the honor with Cal’s Jeremiah Wilkinson), was just 2-for-7 for five points with one assist in the opening half. Knueppel made up for some of that by sinking three treys on the way to 11 points.
–Field Level Media
