Duke survives scare at Wake Forest by moving to zone – ABC11 Raleigh-Durham

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Duke faced a challenge against Wake Forest unlike anything it had seen in nearly three months, and the second-ranked Blue Devils responded with something they hadn’t done all season.

Duke erased a six-point deficit in the second half after switching to a 2-3 zone defense over the final nine minutes and completely stifled the Demon Deacons’ scorers to run away with a 63-56 victory, its closest since Dec. 5 and just the third single-digit margin in the Blue Devils’ current 13-game winning streak.

“We kept it in our back pocket just in case,” Duke coach John Scheier said. “It’s good to have a curveball and even if it’s maybe not the best zone in the world, we were just trying to get them up a little bit, and sometimes late in the game, that’s what it can do. I give those guys credit because you still have to make it work, and we haven’t practiced it too much.”

Duke led by 13 at halftime, but the Blue Devils were ice-cold from the field as the second half began, and Wake found a groove running a pick-and-roll, going on a 23-4 run to pull within six with 9:58 to play. game.

Duke then took a timeout, and when the Blue Devils returned to the court, it was with a new defensive approach.

Scheier said Duke has run a zone for exactly one possession all season and, until late last week, didn’t practice it often either. But after a failed attempt to slow Wake down with the zone in play last season, Scheyer went to his curveball again.

The Duke D offered nothing easy for Wake after the defensive switch, outscoring the Deacons 24-11 the rest of the way. Wake was 2-for-10 – including a streak of eight straight misses – from the field after Duke drove into the zone.

At the postgame press conference podium, Scheier smiled at star freshman Cooper Flagg and quipped, “Have you ever played zone?”

“Never,” Flagg replied with a laugh.

The joke is that there’s virtually nothing that Flagg isn’t good at—even if it’s not a standard part of his repertoire.

Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes was asked about his impressions of Flagg after seeing him in person.

“Generation,” Forbes said before going through a who’s who of the stars he’s coached against in his career, including Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant. “He’s at that level. He’s going to play in the NBA for a long time.”

Scheier bemoaned Duke’s sluggish offense — the 63 points were a season-low — but Flagg was still outstanding, finishing with 24 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

“We haven’t been in a lot of those positions,” Flagg said. “It was a big opportunity for us to show that we can stay calm even when a team is on a streak and stay cool.”

But if Saturday represented a struggle for a seemingly flawless Duke team, Scheier said he has no regrets.

“You have to win one of those games in the tournament, in ACC play — that’s part of it,” Scheier said. “We deserved it with the way we clicked in attack but it’s only a matter of time [before there’s a close game.] It’s huge that we can win and find a way without having our best stuff.”