RALEIGH, N.C. _ If it wasn't clear when Markell Johnson made his first acrobatic layup, it might have been when three Duke players fought over a rebound and lost the ball out of bounds without an N.C. State player within 5 feet of the ball.
By the time Johnson banked in another halfcourt buzzer-beater, his third of the season, it was obvious this was N.C. State's night.
The Wolfpack poured it and put it all together on Wednesday night in a 88-66 win over No. 6 Duke.
A raucous sellout crowd at PNC Arena celebrated the Wolfpack's fifth home win over the Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3 ACC) in seven tries.
Johnson (career-high 28 points) and Devon Daniels (25 points) led the way for a desperate Wolfpack (17-9, 8-7) team, coming off of a three-point loss to Boston College three days ago.
A year after struggling to pick up enough quality wins to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee, N.C. State notched its fifth "Quadrant 1" win on Wednesday.
Duke got down by as many as 23 in the second half, after Johnson's bankshot from the right ear of Mr. Wuf made it 44-29 at the half.
Freshman forward Vernon Carey (27 points, 12 rebounds) led the Duke charge. The Blue Devils whittled the margin down to 11 points at 11:18.
But Johnson wouldn't let the Blue Devils spoil the party, which ended with the student section storming the court for the first time since a Jan. 2018 win over Duke.
N.C. State, quickly putting the BC disappointment in the rearview, couldn't have asked for a better start. Johnson, who scored only four points in the loss to the Eagles, made a difficult twisting layup at 18:10 to get his night started off right.
Daniels, who has arguably been State's best player for the past month, had 18 points in the first half. He was aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and attacking Duke's interior.
Johnson started to heat up from the 3-point line, making a stepback attempt over Joey Baker at 8:14 in the first half, to stretch the Wolfpack lead to 28-13.
Duke started 1 of 7 from the 3-point line and was sloppy in transition. Carey had nine points and seven rebounds in the first half. Sophomore guard Tre Jones finished with 17 points.
With the loss, and Louisville's win over Syracuse on Wednesday, the Blue Devils fell into a first-place tie with the Cardinals in the ACC race.
Louisville holds the tiebreaker over Duke, by virtue of its win in Durham on Jan. 18.
