Greg Paulus scored 22 points, including a burst of three 3-pointers early in the second half, to help third-ranked Duke rally past North Carolina State 92-72 on Thursday night.

Freshman Kyle Singler added 19 points for the Blue Devils (18-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who trailed by nine at halftime for the second straight game before turning up their intensity to stay atop the league standings.

Gavin Grant scored 26 points for the Wolfpack (13-7, 2-4), who turned in one of their best performances of the year in the first 20 minutes before wavering against Duke’s pressure.

In fact, the Blue Devils made this one look at lot like Sunday’s win at Maryland. In that game, Duke allowed Maryland to shoot 62 percent in the first half to build a 51-42 lead at the break before rallying for a 93-84 win.

This time, Duke shook off a spirited effort by Grant and the Wolfpack, who shot 58 percent to take a 46-37 halftime lead. Paulus led the way, assisting on a 3-pointer from Singler before knocking down consecutive 3s to erase N.C. State’s lead just 4 minutes into the half.

After following with another 3 two possessions later, the junior point guard sent the rowdy home crowd into a frenzy when he flipped a pass behind his head on the break to a trailing Singler for the dunk and a 59-55 lead with 13:55 left.

From there, Duke’s lead would only grow.

Singler knocked down a runner over Brandon Costner followed by a jumper over Ben McCauley. DeMarcus Nelson blew by a defender to throw down a two-handed slam, and Paulus found Jon Scheyer for a 3-pointer that gave Duke a 70-58 lead midway through the half.

Duke kept pouring it on, shooting 21-for-32 (66 percent) in the second half while allowing the Wolfpack just 18 field-goal attempts after the break.

Paulus went 5-for-8 from 3-point range to go with six assists and three steals in 33 minutes. He also proved to be a pesky presence to the Wolfpack all night, jawing with Grant and freshman point guard Javi Gonzalez while raising Costner’s ire with a hard first-half foul.

Nelson and Gerald Henderson each added 18 points for Duke.

N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe couldn’t have asked for much more from his Wolfpack — in the first half, anyway. Grant scored 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting in the first half. Costner came off the bench to score 12. N.C. State also committed just nine turnovers despite sending inexperienced point guards Gonzalez and Marques Johnson against Duke’s aggressive perimeter pressure.

When Johnson beat Taylor King into the lane for a spinning layup with about 20 seconds left, the Wolfpack headed into the locker room with plenty of momentum. But Duke erased all of that by scoring on six straight possessions to open the half, ending with Paulus’ back-to-back 3s.

In an unusual sight, many of the “Cameron Crazies” and other Blue Devil fans sported bright green Duke T-shirts as part of a daylong event to raise awareness of global warming.

[via AP]

Topics: Basketball, Sports, General |

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