Despite a big halftime lead, the Duke Blue Devils nearly gave it all away to Wake Forest on the road on Saturday afternoon.
It didn’t matter in the end, though, as No. 2 Duke pulled away in the final minutes for a 63-56 victory to stay undefeated in the ACC.
On the heels of their 12th win in a row, Duke traveled to Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest to make it a baker’s dozen. The Demon Deacons had won six in a row themselves heading into the game with no home losses this year.
Duke started the game with the first bucket, courtesy of [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], and the Blue Devils took off from there. By halftime, Duke had built a 13-point lead.
Wake Forest didn’t back down, coming out of half and rallying to a six-point deficit with just under 10 minutes left in the game. The Blue Devils responded with seven straight scoring possessions to keep it out of reach.
Flagg led the way for Duke, scoring 24 points on 50% (8/16) shooting from the field. He was one-for-six from 3-point range, part of a 28.1% (9/32) game for the team, but he hit seven of his nine free-throw attempts. He also added seven rebounds and six assists, a line good enough to overcome his seven turnovers.
Fellow freshman [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] was the second-leading scorer, adding 15 points (5/12 from the field and three-for-seven from three). He had nine rebounds, three assists, and five turnovers as well.
Aside from those two, [autotag]Mason Gillis[/autotag] was the only other player in double figures with 11 points off the bench. Notably, freshman center [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag] had zero points, three rebounds, and zero assists, playing just 18 minutes.
For Wake Forest, guard Juke Harris led the way with 14 points and five rebounds. Starting guard Hunter Sallis was the only other player in double figures, playing all 40 minutes but scoring just 12 points on 11 shots.
Duke’s next opponent will be on a quick turnaround, facing N.C. State at home on Monday night. The Wolfpack fell to SMU on Saturday, 57-63.
