Jarkel Joiner tried his damnedest in the last couple of minutes to rescue NC State from an underwhelming effort, but it was just too tough an ask. On a night where Terquavion Smith didn’t make a bucket until there was 1:41 left, there was too much ground to be made up.
Still, that was impressive: Joiner scored eight points late and a Wolfpack team that was down 12 with two minutes left found itself down only three less than 90 seconds later. Alas, Duke did not waver at the free throw line and managed to hold on.
After those last two minutes, the rest of the game feels a little extra frustrating, and especially the second half, where State’s offense up and disappeared.