With Dunleavy’s Help, Duke Routs N.C. State

The top scoring team in the Atlantic Coast Conference was looking for anything to get away from the hounding defense thrown up by North Carolina State.

Second-ranked Duke found it in Mike Dunleavy.

Dunleavy scored 15 consecutive points in a 23-2 run to close the first half and Duke rolled to a 76-57 victory Sunday night.

“It took something incredible like that to get that working margin because we were not playing that much more differently performance-wise than N.C. State,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We just had a kid who made separation for us.”

Duke (14-1, 3-1) beat N.C. State for the 11th time in a row and 16th in the last 17 meetings to halt any thoughts that the defending national champions were vulnerable following their first loss a week ago.

Dunleavy had 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals in the opening 20 minutes--outscoring the Wolfpack by one--and finished with a career-high 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting. His previous best was 25 points against San Diego State two weeks ago.

“We were real stagnant there for a while,” Dunleavy said. “We just couldn’t break it open and Jason [Williams] was out of the game for a little bit and I said, ‘I’m going to try and be a little bit more aggressive here.’ I made a couple in a row inside the arc and I just got it going. After you make a few and a few after that it gets real easy.”

Carlos Boozer added 22 points for Duke.

Josh Powell led the Wolfpack (12-4, 2-2) with 12 points.

The Blue Devils fell from the nation’s top ranking after a one-point loss at Florida State last Sunday, but rebounded with impressive wins over Georgia Tech and the Wolfpack while No. 1 Kansas lost to UCLA on Saturday.

That combination could push the Blue Devils back to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll--where they had been all season prior to the loss to the Seminoles.

“We felt like we played a pretty good 30 minutes against Georgia Tech and we came out with a lot of energy, but we didn’t play a full 40 and that’s what we wanted to do tonight,” Dunleavy said. “We really built on that. We were good for 39. So, it’s not yet perfect but we’re on our way.”

N.C. State had won seven of eight, including road wins over Syracuse and Virginia, both top-10 teams.

A crowd of 19,722 was on hand to watch the biggest ACC matchup of the season and see how far the Wolfpack program had come.

N.C. State matched up with Duke for the opening 10 minutes, giving the Blue Devils some problems with its press and harassing them into poor shot selection.

Then the roof caved in for the Wolfpack. After starting six for 11 from the field, they went close to nine minutes without a basket.