Jon Scheyer says 'basically everything' caused loss to NC State

Duke suffered one of their worst losses in recent memory when they were defeated by NC State on the road 84-60. It seemed like nothing could go right for the Blue Devils in PNC Arena on Wednesday night, as Duke head coach Jon Scheyer was asked what went wrong following the game.

“I mean it’s hard to point to one thing right? I mean it was basically everything, it was our defense, it was not being strong enough, it was their defense, got us out of sync. And I think for us just not being in this environment before, when it went that way we didn’t stick together the way that you have to,” Scheyer said.

The Blue Devils got off to a slow start on Wednesday and never recovered, starting off the game 0-12 from the field and not scoring their first basket till the 12:20 mark of the first half. This led to a 15-0 run in favor of the Wolfpack, that was eventually extended to a 22-4 lead.

Duke picked things up a little bit throughout the duration of the contest, but the insurmountable lead combined with NC State’s effectiveness on both ends of the floor made it impossible for the Blue Devils to crawl back into the ballgame.

“And the times where we executed, made passes, and had some poise we actually got to their paint and got some good shots, but there were too many empty possessions,” Scheyer said. “We knew going in they were great at creating turnovers, we have 21, that’s not gonna get it done against anybody, especially not these guys.”

Duke’s 21 turnovers were the most they’ve had in a game this season and a key component in their loss. The Wolfpack turned those 21 turnovers into 30 points, outscoring Duke 30-2 on turnovers and now leading the ACC in opponent turnovers per game averaging 15 per game.

Wednesday’s loss was the largest margin of victory for a ranked Duke team against an unranked ACC team in school history, as the Blue Devils now drop to 11-4 on the season and 2-2 in conference play. They’ve lost two of their last three contests, and hopefully for Duke, they can turn things around in the final game of their road trip against Boston College on Saturday.