Duke is looking for a bit of revenge Tuesday night when it hosts Wake Forest in Durham, N.C.
The Demon Deacons (14-8, 6-5 ACC) beat the Blue Devils (15-6, 6-4 ACC) 81-70 in their first meeting of the season in Winston-Salem on Dec. 20.
Duke had 13 turnovers in that game, lost the rebounding battle and enabled Wake to knock down 22 free throws.
Even though Duke has a matchup with rival North Carolina coming up on Saturday, first-year Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer isn’t overlooking the Deacs.
“For me, I think it’s easy. (Wake) beat the crap out of us the last time we played them,” Scheyer said Monday. “I mean, it wasn’t a good performance at all for us. They outplayed us. They’re really good. They’re as good as any offense in our league. We know it’s a big-time challenge.”
Duke has gone 5-3 in ACC play since that loss to Wake. In their latest outing, the Blue Devils beat Georgia Tech 86-43 on Saturday with five players scoring in double digits.
It’s unclear whether Duke freshman forward Dariq Whitehead will be available for the game against Wake. He missed Duke’s win on Saturday after injuring his lower left leg against Virginia Tech last week. Scheyer said Whitehead “had a really good day” of practice on Sunday.
Fellow freshman Kyle Filipowski leads Duke in scoring and rebounding this season with 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
Wake has gone 5-4 since beating Duke, but it has lost three straight games coming into this rematch. Both of Wake’s last two losses — to Pitt and NC State — were by two points apiece.
“The last three haven’t gone our way, so you come back and watch film and I’ve remained very positive and we can flip the switch pretty quick and a good time to do that will be (Tuesday) night,” Wake coach Steve Forbes said.
Tyree Appleby leads the Deacs this season with 17.7 points and 6.1 assists per game.
–Field Level Media