DURHAM, N.C. — Duke’s offense, a slumbering part of the Blue Devils game earlier in January, gave it the edge to avenge an earlier loss on Tuesday night.
Behind Jeremy Roach’s 21 points and 17 from backcourt mate Tyrese Proctor, the Blue Devils led by as many as 14 points in the second half before posting a 75-73 ACC basketball win over Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils (16-6, 7-4 ACC) shot 50% from the field one game after lighting it up for a season-best 55.7% in Saturday’s 86-43 romp at Georgia Tech. That’s three games in a row shooting 48% or better for a Duke team that went five consecutive January games shooting 40.3% or worse.
In addition to Roach and Proctor’s production, freshman Kyle Filipowski shook off a slow start to finish with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Filipowski scored eight consecutive Duke points after Wake Forest had trimmed the Blue Devils’ lead to 68-61 with 2:55 to play.
Having defeated Duke 81-70 in Winston-Salem on Dec. 20, Wake Forest (14-9, 6-6) shot just 37.5% in Tuesday’s rematch and dropped its fourth consecutive game.
Tyree Appleby led the Demon Deacons with 27 points while Damari Monsanto added 14 and Andrew Carr 11 points.
Duke played its second game in a row without 6-7 freshman guard Dariq Whitehead, who is nursing a sprain to his lower left leg.
Despite Wake’s poor shooting to start the second half, the Deacons pieced together an 8-2 (with six points on free throws) to leave Duke up 55-49 with 10:19 left.
But Proctor stemmed the tide with a 3-pointer before Roach, despite a sore right wrist, scored on a driving layup through traffic and hit a pull-up jumper on the baseline giving Duke a 62-49 lead with 7:54 to play.
When Filipowski dribbled into the lane and fed a bounce pass to Ryan Young for a layup, Duke led 68-54 with 5:25 to play.
But the finish was not easy for Duke from there. Wake finally started putting the ball in the basket piecing together a 12-2 run to set up a tight finish.
When Appleby scored on a driving layup with 1:23 to play, Duke’s lead had dwindled to 70-66.
Filipowski all but clinched the win with a 3-pointer at 46.2 seconds as the shot clock expired to give Duke a 73-66 lead.
Both teams started the second half with cold shooting as they combined to make just 3 of the first 20 shots after halftime. But one of the makes was Proctor’s 3-pointer that put Duke up 46-34 with 16:59 to play.
A little over a minute later, Proctor’s nifty dribble drive to split two Wake defenders put him in position for a lob pass to Lively for a slam dunk to put Duke up 48-36.
Behind Roach’s 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, Duke took a 41-34 halftime lead. The Blue Devils, thanks to Roach’s production, shot 52% from the field in the first half.
Wake Forest hit five of its first 10 3-pointers and led 24-23 after a Bobi Klintman 3-pointer with 7:29 remaining in the half.
The lead see-sawed from there and was tied at 28 before Duke embarked on a 10-4 run to take a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the half.
Filipowski, Mark Mitchell and Young each hit two free throws as the Blue Devils were aggressive in taking the ball at the Deacons. Roach’s driving layup at 2:06, where he was awarded two points on a goal-tending call, put Duke up 38-32.
Young scored inside while drawing a foul and added a free throw with 1:43 left giving the Blue Devils a 41-34 lead.
