Big Block Shots Games Against Duke Basketball

Regardless of the overall strength of any particular Duke team, we've grown accustomed to seeing a game now and then in which the Blue Devils appear to unravel as much as get beaten. Or perhaps they just never ravel.

Whatever, such an experience felled them last March at Wake Forest, at Miami in 2013, at Ohio State during the '12 season, and on Sunday night at N.C. State.

A key to the Wolfpack's 87-75 victory at Raleigh was their ability to stifle Duke's offense.

The Devils shoot .369 from the floor, .259 on threes. Inside, Duke was clearly disrupted if not daunted by the Pack's ability to block shots.

Led by four each from Kyle Washington and BeeJay Anya, Mark Gottfried's squad rejected 10 Duke field goal attempts. That was the most against a Mike Krzyzewski squad since North Carolina blocked a dozen on Feb. 10, 2010, just a month short of five years ago. Duke won that one.

This was the second time in the past four seasons N.C. State blocked at least eight Blue Devil shots, the only team to repeat the feat since 2010. Duke is 5-5 in such games over that span.