The fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils look to avenge a previous loss to the North Carolina State Wolfpack Thursday night at 9 pm EST on ESPN3. The Wolfpack upset then-#1 Duke 84-76 on January 12 for their third straight conference win to start ACC play.
The ESPN3 live stream of the game is here, though it is blacked out in a couple small parts of the country.
Duke has won three in a row since its second loss of the season, a 90-63 defeat at the then-#25 Miami Hurricanes on January 23. Only Miami leads Duke in the ACC conference standings, beating the Blue Devils' 6-2 mark with an undefeated nine games thus far.
Mason Plumlee is the Blue Devils' leading scorer with an average of 17.6 points scored per game. He also leads the team in rebounds per game (10.8), field goal percentage (.604) and is tied for first on the squad in blocks per game (1.7). Quinn Cook has steam-leading 6.2 assists per game average. Ryan Kelly leads all shooters with a .521 success rate behind the three-point line.
Duke last played on Saturday, topping the Florida State Seminoles 79-60 on the road. Cook led the team with five rebounds and six assists and added 18 points. Seth Curry had 21 points to lead all scorers. The team shot 60.8 percent from the court and 61.1 percent in its three-point attempts. Plumlee and Amile Jefferson both made the only four shots the took from the field.
NC State is fifth in the conference with a 5-4 record against ACC opponents. The team has lost two games in a row and four out of six since beating Duke last month. Three of the four defeats in that stretch came against unranked opponents. the Wolfpack is 11th in the nation in scoring, averaging 78.5 points per game. The .504 team shooting percentage is better than all but three schools in the country.
C.J. Leslie averages 15.7 points per game for NC State, tying for first in blocks per game (1) and is second in rebounding (7.5 per game). Richard Howell is the leading rebounders, collecting 20.9 boards per game as part of a double-double average. T.J. Warren is the best shooter on the team, making 63.2 percent of his shots. He has made half of his three-point shot attempts this season.
The Wolfpack lost by one point at home in its last game, a 79-78 defeat at the hands of the Canes. Miami outscored NC State by seven points in the second half, with a Reggie Johnson tip shot giving the Hurricanes the lead for good with four seconds left. Both players coming off of the bench (Leslie and Tyler Lewis) scored 16-plus points in the loss. Miami was held to 3-of-21 three-point shooting in the win.
The last game between these teams featured a 25-point, six-assist night from Leslie and Richard Howell's 18 rebounds. The Wolfpack made at least half of its shots from the field (50.8 percent) and for three points (50 percent) in the game. Despite the individually impressive boards performance, the Wolfpack only out-rebounded the Blue Devils 33-31.
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