Wake Forest vs. Duke: Live Game Thoughts

Final - WAKE DEFEATS DUKE 86-73.

0:57 - Duke misses, Wake boards, Paulus fouls out, LD at the line shooting 2, makes 2, Wake leads 84-72. Students are pouring out into the aisles ready to storm the floor.

1:14 - Duke misses a three, Johnson rebounds and is fouled, Makes both freethrows, Wake leads 82-72.

1:31 - A 4th Duke players fouls out, this time Henderson. Johnson on the lines. Shoots 2, makes 1, Wake leads 80-72.

1:36 - Charge on Singler, his 5th, he fouls out as well. Wake ball.

1:44 - Lance Thomas fouls Teague and fouls out. Krzyzewski is working one of the refs, not sure what about. Teague shoots 2, makes 1, Wake leads 79-72.

1:46 - It only took Duke 8 seconds to grab a layup of their own, cutting the lead back to 6, 78-72. Duke calls timeout after the basket.

1:54 - After a Duke backcourt violation (and Teague almost throwing a punch) Skeen gets fouled and goes to the line. The refs are at the TV monitors checking on something, but we haven't been informed what it is. Nothing seems to have changd, so I guess nothing was wrong. Skeen makes 2-2 and Wake leads 78-70.

2:15 - Duke ball, 76-70 Wake leads.

3:12 - Teague going to the line for 2, Nelson just fouled out. Wake leads 73-66. Dino and Krzyzewski just had some sort of conversation with the ref. Can't tell what it was about but I might be able to find out after the game.

3:45 - Final media timeout, Skeen going to the line to shoot 2 after a big 3 pointer by Paulus to cut Wake's lead to 6. These freethrows will be big, Skeen really needs to be clutch and hit both. Another stop or 2 on defense would we wonderful as well. Currently, the Wake lead is 6, 72-66.

4:38 - seconds after checking in Chas fouls out. Duke on the line. Does Wake know how to finish a big game?

4:58 - WOW. Teague just made an incredibly athletic lead, and with the freethrow Wake leads by 10, 72-62.

5:41 - Wake cannot buy a bucket with the lead. Thankfully, Duke can't seem to make anything right now either. Momentum is on Wake's side, but even right around the basket they're struggling to finish. Both teams' shooting is atrocious this half; Wake's at 29% and Duke's at 32%.
Duke ball, Wake leads 67-62.

7:43 - Things have gotten ugly, but the momentum seems to be in Wake's favor right now. Duke can't make a shot and they've been called for 3 fouls in the last 30 seconds. If either Ish or James could make a freethrow Wake would be in excellent shape. As things are, Wake holds a 1 point lead, the ball, and the double bonus for the remainder of the half. If the Deacs score with the lead for once the game could really turn in Wake's favor. Right now, Wake leads 63-62.

10:07 - A 6-0 Wake run forces Duke to call a quick timeout. Very smart, considering how the crowd is getting back into this. Wake needs to keep scoring though, because they have shown little ability to prevent Duke from scoring in the long run. For now, Wake leads 61-60.

11:46 - Duke has also found themselves in some foul trouble, with Nelson having three and Lance Thomas getting his fourth. Nolan Smith has been big for Duke, just hitting a three to give them a three point lead. Wake isn't going away, but they also don't seem to be showing any signs of being able to get and maintain a lead. A boost of energy and a run is what they really need. Duke leads 58-55.

14:05 - Wake is looking flustered right now. They don't seem to know what they're doing on the offensive end and they've already committed 5 fouls defensively. Thankfully Duke is still struggling a bit from the line, and they now lead the Deacs 55-52.

15:01 - The crowd is very unhappy with the intentional foul call and is letting the refs know. I don't blame them at all. Chas shouldn't have done what he did considering he already had 3 fouls because he's probably out for the next 8+ minutes, but it still wasn't intentional. Duke has used that momentum to tie the game at 52. Wake needs to come up with some sort of offensive answer, but since LD's three there really hasn't been anything. I think it'll be Teague or maybe Clark of the bench who will step up and grab some more momentum.

Game tied at 52.

16:03 - That is the worst intentional foul call I've ever seen. Chas went up hard but he went up to block the ball. I don't know how the refs can make that call. Unbelievable. Duke misses one of the freethrows, Wake leads 52-48.

16:36 - Incredibly Alley-Oop from Ish to LD with the one-handed windmill. Really gets the crowd going. LD hits a three and looks to be the energy spark this half like Teague was in the 1st. Wake leads 52-44.

2nd Half - 19:16 - Wake starts the half with the ball but Johnson misses a shot. Duke misses and Johnson can't handle the great feed from Ish on the other end. Those are the turnovers Wake's got to cut out this half. No score yet in the half, Wake leads 47-42.

Halftime - Huge tip-in by Jamie Skeen at the buzzer. Duke got lazy on the glass and Skeen slid in for a beautiful tip. Wake takes a 5 point lead into the half here at the Joel against Duke, 47-42. It wasn't exactly perfect, but any time you have a lead over Duke at the half you really can't complain.

Wake has had production from everyone. Teague started out very very hot and has cooled off some, but his early production set the tone for the game and has made a huge impact on this game. Chas has a pretty good half and it could have been even better if he hadn't gotten himself in foul trouble on the double-technical early in the half. Gary Clark turned in another solid half of role-playing basketball with 4 points.

The defense has played well enough. Duke is going to score points, but the defense has kept them from getting too many easy ones.

My 2 big concerns are turnovers and DeMarcus Nelson. Wake has turned the ball over 10 times, which is just way too many against Duke. The Devils have helped Wake out by turning it over a bunch as well, but those need to be cut down in the 2nd half. DeMarcus Nelson is now 3-3 from beyond the arc and has been pretty open on every single one of them. The defense needs to make sure to get out on him and prevent the easy opportunities.

Wake leads 47-42 at halftime. Wake has shot 53% and Duke is at 55%. Wake is 67% from beyond the arc, Duke is 63%. 11 Wake turnovers to 13 for Duke. Key stat: Wake freethrows are 9-13, Duke's are 5-13. That's the entire lead right there.

0:23 - Teague only makes 1-2 at the line but a Johnson rebound and Wake timeout means Wake should have the last shot of the half and as much as a 6 point lead, but no worse than 3 if no shot is made. Good place to be, leading 45-42.

1:14 - Timeout Duke. Wake goes on a little run there, with Johnson making his freethrows and a nice move in the post. My biggest concern right now is the way DeMarcus Nelson is lighting Wake up for 3. He's either 3-3 or 4-4 from out there right now, which just isn't acceptable. Wake's not really getting a hand is face. Still, Deacs lead 44-40.

3:12 - Both Gary Clark and James Johnson have done some good things here and the defense has continued to be solid, even producing a 3-second violation on Duke. Wake takes a 35-34 lead into this media timeout with Johnson going to the line for what I believe will be a 1-1 after the timeout. The crowd is back into it and excited. The play hasn't been flawless, but it's been pretty solid all around and the defense has clearly been frustrating Duke, to the point of upsetting Jon Scheyer enough that the students were chanting "Scheyer's crying...clap clap clap."

Wake isn't going away and is playing as hard as I've seen all year. Great first half so far. Once again, Wake leads 35-34.

Stats: Wake shooting 52%, Duke at 52%, Both teams in double bonus and 10 turnovers for each. It is very very even right now.

5:46 - Chas just had to check out for blood, but it doesn't look bad. 26-27 Duke leads.

7:57 - Things have gotten noticeably sloppier for both teams with several turnovers and fouls each. The starting lineup for Wake checked back in and has been able to avoid fouls, but hasn't been able to score points. Duke has started hitting some of their shots and are capitalizing on some of Wake's mistakes. It was unlikely that Wake would lead this game from wire to wire, but it's still not fun to see Duke leading 27-24. If Wake avoids stupid mistakes and makes a couple more shots then they should be right back in good shape.

Wake shooting 53%, Duke at 55%. Even at 7 turnovers, 8 fouls for Wake to 5 for Duke.

11:44 - Teague called for traveling, turns the ball back over to Duke. Neither team is shooting freethrows well; I think whichever team ends up doing that better will have a big advantage tonight. Early foul trouble is also problematic (although something Wake's done a lot of recently) with Ish and Chas both having two. Still, Wake leads 20-14 and is playing good tough defense. It's been a fun 8 minutes.

Stats so far: Wake shooting 58%, Duke at 43%. 5 Wake turnovers and 6 fouls to 6 turnovers and 4 fouls for Duke.

12:35 - Dino just ripped into Skeen for not boxing out, and well deserved I might add. Duke cannot make freethrows at all, which is an advantage I love having. Wake leads 19-14.

13:26 - I don't think there can be much complaining about the start. Jeff Teague has been hot with 11 early points (including 3-3 from beyond the arc) and defensively Wake's done what needs to be done. The crowd is really into things and this is the loudest I can remember the Joel being. Duke doesn't seem flustered but they also aren't playing great. This is exactly the kind of start Wake needed to have. Chas and Zoubek just got double technical fouls. We can't have Chas in foul trouble, we need him tonight. Wake leads 18-12.

Tipoff - Duke wins tip...no surprise.

Dino's wearing a purple shirt/tie combo tonight. I Wish he would have gone with something a bit more Wake-ish for this one. Great atmosphere for the player intros, it's the loudest I've heard it all year.

The clock says we're about 7 minutes from tipoff, although I'm sure it will be a little longer than that. The Joel is looking pretty full tonight, and as expected the students have turned out in full force. There are still some holes to be filled in with the rest of the crowd, but it will definitely be full and loud tonight.

There is more blue in the stands than I would like to see, but I guess that's what happens when you're playing Duke. Duke just came out for their final warm-up and received a pretty good booing from the crowd. I'm sure they'll erupt here in a minute when Wake comes out.

Stick with Old Gold & Blog throughout the game for full thoughts from the Joel. Lets go get a win!