Washington, D.C. – The NC State men’s defeated number two seed and 11th-ranked Duke, 74-69, Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament played at Capital One Arena.
With the win, the Pack advances to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2014. NC State will face third-seed Virginia. The game against the Cavaliers will tipoff at 9:30 p.m. and be televised on ESPN.
Mohamed Diarra had a monster game for the Pack, finishing with a career-high 14 points and a career-high four blocks while also pulling down 16 rebounds, the second-most in a single game in his career.
Diarra also had a team-high and career-high tying three steals.
DJ Horne led NC State with 18 points off-the-bench while Michael O’Connell finished with 12 and Casey Morsell added 11 points, with all 11 points coming in the second half.
DJ Burns finished with 10 points and a team-high tying four assists.
NC State held a three-point lead at the break and never trailed in the second half.
The Pack scored the first six points of the second half to open a nine-point lead and force Duke to call a timeout with 17:07 to go.
The Blue Devils battled back to get within two, 50-48, with 11:47 to play and trailed by just three, 53-50, with 10:52 to go when NC State went on a 9-2 run to take a double-digit advantage, 62-52, with 6:20 left.
Duke cut NC State’s advantage to five with 2:28 remaining, and after empty possessions from both teams, Burns extended the Pack’s lead back to seven with a driving lay-up with 1:23 to go.
Duke scored the next five points to get within two on a Kyle Filipowski lay-up with 19 seconds to play, but Horne stepped to the foul line and made two free throws with 15 seconds and the Pack got a stop on the other end to secure the win.
Filipowski led the Blue Devils with 28 points while Mark Mitchell added 18.
Thanks to Horne’s 18 points off-the-bench, NC State outscored Duke’s bench 21-0 and despite the Blue Devils grabbing 12 offensive rebounds to just nine for the Pack, NC State outscored Duke, 18-8, in second chance points.
After a sluggish start from both teams in the first three minutes, NC State came to life midway through the opening half, hitting five of six shots to take a 19-12 lead with 10:21 to go in the first period.
The Pack’s lead was 24-19 when the Blue Devils went on a 9-0 run to take a 28-24 lead on a Mark Mitchell dunk.
NC State bounced back with a run of its own, scoring the next six points to retake the lead, 30-28, with 3:34 left until half.
Horne made a running jumper in the lane to beat the halftime buzzer and send the Pack into the locker room with a 35-32 lead at intermission.
Horne led NC State with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the first half.