The Demon Deacons and Blue Devils combined to make nine of their first 35 shots on Monday night, but Duke made the shots it needed to in the second half for the eight-point win.
Duke basketball didn’t make it pretty or stress-free on Monday night, but a win is a win. The Blue Devils dispatched Wake Forest for a 77-69 win, the team’s third straight in front of the home crowd to move to 19-5 on the year and 10-3 in conference play.
The first half was, to put it as politely as possible, some of the least efficient basketball ever seen at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils took a 29-27 lead into the locker room after Wake Forest finished 11/39 (28.2%) from the floor and 4/19 (21.1%) from beyond the 3-point line.
Guard Hunter Sallis scored 14 of his team’s points, but the other four Demon Deacons starters were a combined 3/18 (16.7%) in the first 20 minutes. Three separate Wake Forest players finished the first half 0/3 from beyond the arc.
It wasn’t much better on the Duke side of the aisle. The Blue Devils outrebounded Wake Forest 28-23, but they shot 11/31 (35.5%) from the floor and 3/14 (21.4%) from deep.
On top of that, Duke also turned the ball over eight times. You’d be forgiven for not noticing that, though, because Wake scored no points on any of those giveaways.
Kyle Filipowski offered some first-half bright spots for the Blue Devils at least. The star big man finished the half with 10 points and seven rebounds, taking advantage of Wake Forest’s Efton Reid battling foul trouble.
Freshman Jared McCain pulled down eight rebounds before halftime, too, adding to his astounding recent form on the glass.
The lid came off the basket a little after halftime with the two teams combining for 19 points in the first four minutes of the second half.
Duke’s Mark Mitchell stepped up bigger once play resumed. The sophomore scored seven points in the opening half, but he dropped 10 more in the first six minutes of the second. He made a tough layup through contact early, and he finished his explosive run with his seventh 3-pointer of the year.
Mitchell ended with a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds.
Filipowski added another tough layup of his own, charging into the lane and adjusting around a defender beautifully, to give Duke a five-point lead with 12 minutes to play. About a minute later, McCain buried a 3-pointer to build the lead a little more and cement his third double-double in his last four games.
The Demon Deacons wouldn’t go away, however, answering both Filipowski’s layup and McCain’s deep shot with baskets of their own to keep it a two-score game. A tough layup from Reid through Filipowski made it a three-point game inside eight minutes to go, and Duke’s grasp on the game felt precarious.
McCain and Filipowski came through again, however. Over the next two minutes, the freshman made four free throws and the 7-footer finished two physical layups to grow the lead back to eight.
Both players put together a double-double for the game. Filipowski ended the game with 21 points and 10 rebounds and McCain finished his game with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior Jeremy Roach finished with 12 points too, including a mammoth 3-pointer and a layup on back-to-back possessions in the final five minutes to keep the Blue Devils narrowly in front.
Wake Forest kept making tough baskets down the stretch, but Duke kept earning trips to the free throw line, and the Blue Devils never led by fewer than five points in the closing minutes.
The Blue Devils get an extended break before their next game, a Saturday road game against Florida State.
