NCAA News Wire
Duke 75, North Carolina State 67
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Forward Jabari Parker scored 20 points on his 19th birthday and seventh-ranked Duke pulled away with a big second-half run to defeat North Carolina State, 75-67, in an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal on Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Duke made 13-of-19 second-half shots from the field and connected on enough free throws down the stretch.
Guard Rasheed Sulaimon added 16 points, while guard Quinn Cook and forward Rodney Hood each scored 14 for Duke.
Third-seeded Duke meets top-seeded Virginia, a 51-48 winner over Pittsburgh, in Sunday’s final.
The Blue Devils (26-7) will play in the final for the first time since winning the 2011 tournament, while Virginia (27-6) ends a 20-year absence from the title game.
Forward T.J. Warren scored 21 points for seventh-seeded N.C. State (21-13), which was hoping for another result to boost its chances of playing in the NCAA tournament.
Warren, the league’s top scorer, was held to eight points in the second half.
Forward Lennard Freeman added 13 points and guard Anthony Barber added 12 for N.C. State. Both are freshmen.
Duke broke a 45-45 tie with a 16-4 run, using a couple of dunks in transition to ignite its crowd.
N.C. State had tied the game, 45-45, on guard Ralston Turner’s 3-pointer, sending Wolfpack fans into a frenzy as they sensed what would have been their team’s second upset in as many days.
The Wolfpack knocked off Syracuse on Friday.
But N.C. State went a span of 5½ minutes without a field goal, giving Duke a chance to build a double-digit lead.
Duke, which held an early six-point edge, was on top 39-38 at halftime despite N.C. State’s 66.7 percent (16-for-24) shooting from the floor.
Seven offensive rebounds in the first half helped Duke, which made 15-of-30 shots before the break. The Blue Devils were 5-of-12 on 3-point shots in the first half.
At one point, N.C. State was shooting 71.4 percent from the field, yet trailed, 37-36, with under three minutes to play in the first half.
Cook had eight points off the bench in the first 17 minutes.
Duke defeated Virginia, 69-65, on Jan. 13 at home in the only regular-season meeting. Virginia has lost only once since then.
NOTES: N.C. State has reached the ACC tournament semifinals in each of coach Mark Gottfried’s three seasons. … Duke altered its starting lineup from a night earlier, with G Rasheed Sulaimon in the first unit to replace G Andre Dawkins, who was scoreless in seven minutes against Clemson and didn’t play Saturday. … Duke won the only regular-season game against N.C. State with a 95-60 home romp.
