Everyone in Durham knew NC State would be one of Duke’s biggest tests of the year.
The Wolfpack came into Sunday’s game as the No. 6 team in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, sporting a 23-4 record. They were the highest-ranked team in the conference coming into the week and a consistent top-five team in the nation over the past five years.
Duke welcomed the challenge, and after four hard-fought quarters, the Blue Devils walked off with a massive 69-58 upset win for in-state bragging rights.
The Blue Devils jumped on the Wolfpack from the opening whistle, scoring 11 of the game’s first 13 points. Duke’s Reigan Richardson seemed content to beat the Wolfpack herself, scoring the game’s first four points in the opening 90 seconds.
A team as good as NC State wouldn’t go away that easily, however, as the Wolfpack fought back within five before the first quarter ended. Their senior center River Baldwin, who ended the game with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double, scored half of her team’s points in the opening frame.
With the lead just 13-8 as the second quarter began, Blue Devils fans could be forgiven for thinking momentum sided with the seasoned NC State team. Instead, Duke came out hot again, going on a 6-2 run to open the quarter. Sophomore Emma Koabel, who averaged two points in Duke’s last nine games, made two baskets in the opening minutes en route to a three-for-four performance from the floor.
Sophomore Taina Mair started to warm up in the second as well. The former Boston College guard made a jumper in the first two minutes, but a dagger 3-pointer with 2:30 before the half made Duke’s lead double-digits. Another layup later, she led both teams with 10 points at the break.
After the upset seemed vulnerable with the Wolfpack’s closing run in the first, Duke outscored NC State 22-11 in the second quarter to open up a 16-point lead at halftime. Suddenly, what looked to be Duke’s biggest test of the year was starting to become the team’s biggest statement.
Richardson stretched the lead a little further with a jump shot that found the net in the first minute of the second half, and Mair and center Kennedy Brown made 3-pointers within a minute of each other to ballon Duke’s lead to 22 points midway through the quarter.
Brown, who stands 6-foot-6, had only made five 3-pointers for the entire season before the sequence.
The Wolfpack kept trying to force their way back into the game, but Duke never let them gain momentum. NC State’s Aziaha James made two 3-pointers to pull within 13, and Duke answered with three easy baskets to end the run. The Wolfpack made a jump shot, but Richardson buried a triple. Each NC State punch had a Blue Devils counterpunch.
The fourth quarter began with Duke holding firm control of a 15-point lead, and the rocking Cameron Indoor crowd could power the Blue Devils to the finish from there.
The upset looked to teeter for the briefest of moments when Baldwin made a jump shot to pull the Wolfpack within nine with 2:26 to play, but Mair took over once and for all to cement the upset.
She made a layup through contact, drawing the foul and adding the free throw to pull the lead back to 12. After another NC State basket, she drove to the right and laid in a floater off the backboard, screaming and pumping her fists as it found the net.
The Blue Devils coasted from there, and when the final buzzer sounded, the 11-point win was secure. Mair ended the game with 20 points and seven rebounds, and Richardson added 15 points of her own.
The statement win is Duke’s second straight triumph over a ranked team after its Thursday victory over Syracuse, and the Blue Devils move to 18-9 on the season and 10-6 in ACC play. They welcome Virginia to their home court on Thursday next.