DURHAM, N.C. _ Not much went right for Duke in the first half of its rematch with N.C. State on Monday night. Everything went right for the Blue Devils in the second half.
Freshman wing Cassius Stanley led a second-half surge as Duke turned a tight game into an 88-69 home win over the Wolfpack.
The Blue Devils (24-6, 14-5 ACC) missed 12 of their first 13 shots and threw the ball away often looking for long breaks as they got off to a slow start. They couldn't get either of their All-ACC players going but reserve Justin Robinson (10 points) provided an unexpected spark and a switch to zone by coach Mike Krzyzewski helped turn a slow start into a satisfactory ending.
Stanley scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and Duke's 2-3 zone derailed N.C. State's pursuit of its first regular-season sweep of the Blue Devils in 25 years. The Wolfpack (18-12, 9-10) beat Duke, No. 6 in the NET, 88-66 in Raleigh just 12 days ago.
That game ended with N.C. State fans swarming the court and dreaming of a return to the NCAA tournament.
This game ended with a patented Duke second-half flurry, the kind Krzyzewski has routinely been able to coax out of his troops after a subpar start with a halftime tweak and a little locker-room paint peel.
Duke stars Tre Jones (15 points) and Vernon Carey (17 points, seven rebounds) struggled to get going. But for all of Duke's problems in the first half, it had a 38-36 lead at the break. N.C. State shot 50% (14 of 28) and led by as many as eight points but couldn't make the Devils pay for their early miscues.
Senior guard C.J. Bryce and guard Devon Daniels had 14 points each to lead N.C. State.
Robinson probably wasn't on the scouting report. The senior came off the bench and scored eight points. He made both of his 3-point attempts. He had made three for the season before Monday. His minutes have picked up recently, although he didn't play in Saturday's loss at Virginia.
N.C. State was up 20-12 when Robinson hit his first 3 at 9:43 in the first half. He buried another at 8:47 to cut the Wolfpack's lead to 21-18.
A dunk by Robinson with 6:47 left in the half gave Duke its first lead of the game, 25-23. But N.C. State scored the game's next nine points.
The last of the Wolfpack flurry came on a 3-pointer by Bryce, after Duke had switched from man defense to a 2-3 zone.
Krzyzewski didn't go back to the man, though. He stuck with zone and was willing to bet that N.C. State wouldn't be patient enough or make enough outside shots to complete its first regular-season sweep of the Blue Devils since the 1994-95 season.
