The NC State men's basketball team (17-13, 9-10) fell to in-state foe No. 10 Duke (24-6, 15-4), 79-64, Monday evening at PNC Arena in the final home game of the season.
D.J. Burns, Jr led all scorers with a season-high 27 points on 63.1 percent shooting, while also dishing out four assists.
Mohamed Diarra added 10 points and grabbed a team-best seven boards for the Pack.
The Wolfpack offense came out of the gates hot, going on a 9-0 scoring run to begin the game. NC State could not maintain the momentum though as Duke responded to the 9-0 deficit with an 11-0 run to take its first lead of the game Tyrese Proctor three-pointer.
The lead went back and forth between the teams for the next 10 minutes until a mini 11-4 Duke run gave the Blue Devils a 33-28 advantage with 22 seconds left in the half.
Casey Morsell hit a buzzer-beating jump shot from just inside the three-point line to narrow the Duke lead to just three points, 33-30 heading into the locker room.
Burns led all scorers in the first half, putting up 15 points and grabbing three rebounds.
After Duke scored the first basket of the second half, Diarra capped a 9-4 NC State spurt with a three-pointer to tie the game at 39. Another Diarra basket a few minutes later put the Pack in front 46-45 with 12:10 to play, but that proved to be NC State's final lead of the game.
Duke responded to Diarra's basket by making 10 of its next 11 shots, going on a 19-6 run to take a 64-52 lead with 7:46 to play.
NC State had one final push in it as a
Breon Pass three-pointer with 6:07 to play got the Pack within seven, but it could get no closer.
Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 21 points, while Jared McCain added 16 and Proctor finished with 11.
The Pack will head north to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers on Saturday March 9 in the final game of the regular season. Tipoff is set for 7:45pm on The CW Network.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/3/4/mens-basketball-pack-falls-to-duke-in-home-finale