Duke 73, NC State 56

Box Score

NC State

Four Factors
eFG%	48.0
Turnover Rate	31.4
Off Reb Rate	50.0
FTA/FGA	21.6

Duke

Four Factors
eFG%	57.0
Turnover Rate	13.2
Off Reb Rate	32.3
FTA/FGA	21.1

          Pts   Poss    Off_Eff   Def_Eff
Duke      73    60.5     120.7      92.6
NCSU      56    60.5      92.6     120.7

-- Duke shot 88.5% in the second half, allowing them to score infinity billion points (give or take) per possession in the final 20 minutes. We're somewhat to blame for a lazy defensive effort (which I thought was awful all night; they just happened to miss their open shots in the opening period), but it was also typical Duke doing their hey we're playing State so let's get preposterously hot and make Steven want to hurt puppies thing. And I love puppies!

-- With the Wolfpack down three and the game clearly slipping away, Tracy Smith finally blew some shit up in the form of a bucket and a foul; unfortunately, he missed the free throw and failed to spark anyone else on the team, as NC State shot 1-10 and committed five turnovers over the last eight minutes. Three consecutive turnovers between the 5:07 and 4:08 marks decisively shifted the answer to the question "are we doomed?" from "most likely" to "holy god yes please let this end."

-- Those last eight minutes reminded me of this game.

-- The turnover percentages in our first four ACC games: 27.8, 23.6, 28.6, 31.4. Ken Tysiac noted this last night:

How bad was N.C. State's start? Thanks to three straight turnovers by Farnold Degand to open the game, the ball didn't cross the 3-point arc on the side of the court the Wolfpack was attacking for the game's first 2 minutes, 12 seconds.