Duke basketball ACC Tournament opponent confirmed after lopsided victory
It will be a not too distant foe for the Blue Devils to open the postseason
A pair of in-state rivals will be meeting in Washington D.C. for the first game of the postseason for the Duke basketball team.
The Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament, will be taking on No. 10 seed North Carolina State on Thursday night (7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN) in the quarterfinals.
North Carolina State punched its ticket to the game after a dominating performance over No. 7 seed Syracuse, 83-65.
The game wasn’t always lopsided, however, with the Wolfpack taking just a three-point lead, 35-32, into halftime before exploding for 48 points in the second half.
Four players, including three starters, were in double figures for NC State, but the most important thing coming out of its victory was the play of DJ Horne.
Horne scored 16 points off the bench in 20 minutes after not playing in the Wolfpack’s win over Louisville on Tuesday afternoon with a hip flexor injury. He was limited to just 12 minutes in the team’s regular season finale against Pittsburgh.
Jayden Taylor led the way with 18 points for North Carolina State.
It’ll be the second meeting in the last ten days between the Blue Devils and Wolfpack after Duke won the only meeting in the regular season between the two teams, 79-64.
NC State began the game on a 10-0 run over the first three minutes before a Jon Scheyer timeout settled his team down and they began to assert themselves on the road.
Thursday night will be the third game in as many days for the Wolfpack, who really only played a seven man rotation against Syracuse.
Four starters played at least 30 minutes in the victory for Kevin Keatts’ squad.
Duke is looking to win back-to-back ACC Tournament Championships and be the first team to do so since the Blue Devils won three straight titles from 2009-2011.
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