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Duke Stumbles On The Road vs. Wake Forest

Not a great game by the Blue Devils

By JD King Updated
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Duke v Wake Forest
 WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 20: Daivien Williamson #4 and Tyree Appleby #1 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defend Jaylen Blakes #2 of the Duke Blue Devils during the first half of their game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on December 20, 2022 in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Duke’s trip to Wake Forest was mostly an exercise in frustration as Wake Forest won 81-70.

Tryese Proctor’s steal to start the second half sort of encapsulated the night: he made a brilliant pick but blew the layup.

Duke certainly had opportunities but couldn’t capitalize. A few minutes after that steal, Jaylen Blakes, who had a really good game overall, stole the ball then threw it away.

Playing without Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead, who were both ill and remained home, Duke had trouble with Wake’s Matthew Marsh as the Deacs consistently passed over Blue Devils defenders for lobs. Some didn't work, but enough did. He’s a lot better than we realized. And so is his fellow Brit Cameron Hildreth, who showed some real toughness in this game.

Missing Lively and Whitehead were not why Duke lost. The Blue Devils were disjointed and made a lot of errors that they don’t typically make. Part of this may be the natural result of not practicing a lot over the break, but in fairness, that’s probably true for Wake Forest as well. The fact that Jeremy Roach didn’t for nine days obviously didn’t help either. Still, you go with what you have.

On the bright side, Duke did start to show a lot more heart in the second half and played well enough defensively to give themselves opportunities to catch up but the offense, again, was not able to capitalize.

Congratulations to Wake Forest. They were clearly the better team and deserved the win.

It wasn’t fun to watch, but it’s only one game. Duke hosts Florida State on Saturday. Hopefully Roach is healthier and Lively and Whitehead are available again.

Next play.

Poll

Player Of The Game vs. Wake Forest

This poll is closed

  • 5%
    Mark Mitchell
    (20 votes)
  • 1%
    Kyle Filipowski
    (5 votes)
  • 2%
    Ryan Young
    (7 votes)
  • 0%
    Tyrese Proctor
    (3 votes)
  • 0%
    Jeremy Roach
    (2 votes)
  • 5%
    Jaden Schutt
    (18 votes)
  • 81%
    Jaylen Blakes
    (279 votes)
  • 2%
    Jacob Grandison
    (8 votes)
342 votes total Vote Now

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