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When the Duke-State game started Saturday we figured that it was going to be a tight game as it so often is, especially in Raleigh. And for about the first five minutes or so it was.
State hit a basket at the 14:16 mark to get to 10 and then didn't score again until the 9:34 mark when Braxton Beverly hit a layup - his only basket, as it turned out - and finished the half with just 21 points.
State also had 18 turnovers, some of them egregious, but remember that their best player is out for the rest of the season, and also remember that no one has had an easy slog of it this year. State is using two freshmen guards heavily - Cam Hays and Shakeel Moore - and has nine underclassmen and probably has a lot of the same issues that Duke and UNC have had with youth and getting consistent work in. So don’t judge them too hard and we hope State fans will not be too hard on them either.
Anyway, here is a compressed version of the game. Lots of good stuff here for Duke, notably that after giving up 93 and 91 points in the last two games, the Blue Devils gave up just 53 here.