NC State and the Duke Blue Devils are playing in the ACC conference tournament semifinals on Saturday and North Carolina comes in after an upset win over Syracuse and the matchups starts past 3 pm ET on ESPN and streaming live online from the WatchESPN website and this will be a chance to get into the finals against Virginia at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Duke comes into the game ranked seventh in the nation in the top 25 and they hung on after playing against Clemson by one point on Friday and that saw Jabari Parker score 18 points and they come into the game 13-5 on the season in the ACC and 25-7 overall. The team is averaging nearly 80 points per game this season and they are shooting nearly 47 percent from the field and they have the chance to get the ACC conference tournament title and that could bolster their resume for one of the top seeds and with Syracuse and Villanova losing in their tourneys.
Duke has been one of the most consistent teams in the nation and they have the chance to get on a real roll after finishing the season with a win against North Carolina and they have now won four of their last five games on the schedule and before that their only other losses were against Wake Forest and UNC over the last month. Parker has been leading the team in scoring and rebounding and has been a force as a freshman and this could be his last run with the team before leaving for the NBA.
The team has some nice wins this season, including against ranked teams in UNC, Pittsburgh and Syracuse and that game gave the Orange their second loss of the season. Duke is looking to get back into the finals and North Carolina State is no joke after they pulled their upset and Rodney Hood got things done against Clemson and he finished with 17 points and along with Parker he will be a key player for the Blue Devils. Duke last won the title back in 2011 and they have won all but three of the past 15 games against the Wolfpack and now they have the chance to make it into the finals again.
Check here for the NC State and Duke live coverage from ESPN.
