North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Runs Past No. 2 Duke 87-75
1/11/2015 12:00:00 AM
Jan. 11, 2015
Box Score | Buy Tickets | 
Photo Gallery
RALEIGH, N.C. - The NC State men's basketball team earned its #STATEment win. In front of a packed PNC Arena and on national TV, the Wolfpack (12-5, 3-1 ACC) defeated No. 2 Duke 87-75 on Sunday afternoon. The Pack shot 55.0 percent (33-of-60) from the field and was red-hot from long range hitting 10-of-16 3-point attempts.
Trevor Lacey led the Wolfpack with 21 points (including 5-of-7 from 3-point range). Ralston Turner added 16 points and BeeJay Anya came off the bench and had 14 points and six rebounds in 19 minutes.
Besides shooting 62.5 percent from 3-point range, the Pack also outscored Duke 40-26 in points in the paint, in large part due to getting 18 assists on its 33 made field goals. State also went 22:01 without a turnover. That run began with 12:27 remaining in the first and lasted until the 5:32 mark in the second half.
The Wolfpack has now won three of the last four meetings over Duke at PNC Arena dating back to the 2010 season. For the second straight game played in Raleigh, the Pack knocked off Duke while they were unbeaten to start the season. In 2013, Duke came in ranked No. 1 in the polls but the Pack pulled off the 84-76 upset. Today, Duke was one of three unbeatens in college basketball and ranked No. 2.
Today's win marked the 31st time in school history NC State has defeated a ranked Duke team, tying North Carolina for the most times getting a win over a ranked team.
Turning Point: The Wolfpack, leading 50-48 with 12:08 left, ran off a 22-5 run to take a 72-53 lead with 5:40 left in the game. During that stretch, the Pack hit 9-of-11 field goals, and held the Blue Devils to just a single field goal during that run.
Duke answered with a 16-4 run of its own to narrow the score to 76-69 with 1:37 left, but the Pack closed out the game on a 11-5 run, making both field goal attempts and 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
Gott Said It:"I want to start off and say, I'm really proud of our team and I think that we beat a very good basketball team. I think Duke is a tough team to play against because of their 3-point shooting and Okafor inside. I've watched a lot of college basketball and I haven't seen someone like Okafor at our level in a long time. He's different and he forces you to do so many different things defensively. They are obviously a terrific team but I'm really proud of our guys.
"They showed a great defensive effort and they were defensively locked in. We doubled in the post when we needed to and we recovered well out of the double team. We tried to make things difficult for their shooters and their drivers. At the same time trying to take away Okafor's one-on-one opportunities, which is hard to do. We are used to Ralston and Trevor making big shots but we got some production out of our interior guys, which changes our team. It takes the pressure of perimeter. BeeJay was just fantastic in there. Kyle had some great passes, Malik and Lennard as well. We had great production from our interior guys and that was really big for our team today."
Up Next: NC State (12-5, 3-1 ACC) hosts nationally ranked UNC-Chapel Hill Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. The game will be nationally broadcast on ESPN2.
