NC State vs Duke Gambling Lines
The North Carolina State Wolfpack and the seventh-ranked Duke Blue Devils will square off in Greensboro on Saturday in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament. [ad-4468020]
ACC Tournament – Semifinal
N.C. State Wolfpack (21-12) vs. 7 Duke Blue Devils (25-7)
Date: Saturday, March 15, 2014
Time: 3:00 PM ET
Venue: Greensboro Coliseum
City: Greensboro, North Carolina
Spread: Duke -9.5
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Matchup Stats | ATS Insider Preview
The Wolfpack have wins in four straight games, including a shocking upset of Syracuse on Friday, while Duke looks to keep on rolling with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in their crosshairs.
Duke needed a lot of help to get past Clemson on Friday. That one went right down to the wire, and the Blue Devils trailed by a point inside of the game’s final four seconds when a late foul call sent Rodney Hood to the line, and he knocked down both of his shots to win the game for Duke.
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All that was completely unnecessary as the Blue Devils had held a 13-point lead, and were in danger of joining Syracuse and North Carolina as top ACC seeds to fall on Friday.
It was N.C. State that took care of business against Syracuse on Friday, extending their winning streak to four games by knocking off the second-seeded Orange. The team has now reached the tournament semifinals three years in a row, but lost each of those first two tries. Saturday’s opportunity could prove equally difficult as the Blue Devils have won 12 of the last 15 meetings between the teams, including a 96-60 victory in the lone matchup this season.
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If they are to pull off another upset, they’ll need another solid performance from ACC Player of the Year T.J. Warren. Warren racked up 28 points and eight rebounds in the team’s win over Syracuse, and is now averaging 33.8 points on 57.1 percent shooting over the course of the team’s four-game winning streak. In that first meeting with Duke, Warren scored 23 points, but was the only Wolfpack scorer to reach double-digits.
Duke will look to counter Warren’s production with star Jabari Parker, who leads the team with 19.2 points per game. Parker had 18 points against Clemson on Friday, and scored 23 against N.C. State in that earlier meeting.
Duke escaped one scare already with their win over Clemson on Friday, but and they must know that they’ll need to beat N.C. State handily if they hope to score points with the selection committee. Even if they were to advance to the tournament finals, they would draw a solid defensive squad in either Virginia and Pittsburgh, which would make it hard to run up the score. As for N.C. State, a significant letdown is in order following their last second win over Syracuse.
The Blue Devils are 7-2-1 ATS in their last 10 games following an ATS loss.
The play: Duke -9.5
