ATLANTA — The team with nothing to lose played like a team with nothing but the blues.
N.C. State’s season with no reason went out with a whimper rather than the promised bang on Friday night with a dismal — at times embarrassing — 76-61 loss to a vulnerable Duke team in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
The door slammed shut on coach Herb Sendek’s seventh-seeded Wolfpack with 40,000-plus looking on in dismay. The Wolfpack called it quits — literally — at 13-16, an unfathomable record for a team that returned four starters from a squad that went 20-14 and impressed in the NIT a year ago.
Apparently, that one missing starter, Justin Gainey, was a much more valuable player than his 8.6 ppg would suggest.
Duke (27-4) is obviously a good team even without injured center Carlos Boozer, but the Devils did not play very well Friday, especially in the first half. There is no way they should have blown a backs-to-the-wall Wolfpack away.
Look at the Devil numbers. Superstar Shane Battier was 4-for-13. The only thing Mike Dunleavy hit was teammate Casey Sanders’ head when they collided late in the first half. Nate James finally broke his 3-point drought with a long one from the corner, but his final two tries from the arc barely landed in the state of Georgia. Even Jason Williams — and you have to give that Devil his due — wasn’t exactly perfect. He missed five of six free throws.
Bottom line: Duke shot barely 40 percent, was outrebounded 39-35, made 13 turnovers and hit only seven 3-pointers — 11 fewer than it made Sunday against North Carolina. That should have been a recipe for disaster. Instead, Duke found the Wolfpack ridiculously easy to master.
Reporters tried to talk up Duke’s play in the postgame sessions, but N.C. State’s Damien Wilkins, who scored 13 points but was nowhere to be found when the game was being decided, knew better.
“No, no, I don’t think it was about what Duke did to us at all,” he said. “I think it’s all about what we didn’t do. We didn’t take care of the ball. We didn’t rebound like we can. We didn’t finish around the basket. If we play better, the outcome’s a lot different.”
For the first time all night, maybe all season, Wilkins, former McDonald’s All-American, was right on target.
But the big question is why, Damien, why? Why didn’t the Wolfpack come to play in its last chance? Why didn’t those guys in red have a fire in their belly? Why not bust it when you know it’s all over if you don’t?
“I wish I knew,” said Wilkins. “It was like this all year. You’d feel like you were doing OK, but then you’d look up at the scoreboard and it would say different.”
A shaken Sendek had no answers either. He went to a small lineup to counter Duke’s quickness, rather than a big lineup to take advantage of the absence of Boozer. It didn’t work.
“We put our good hands team out there, so to speak,” said Sendek. “We wanted to diminish the possibility of a flurry of turnovers at the beginning of the game like we had in the game at Cameron (Indoor Stadium).”
So what did Sendek get? That’s right, he got a flurry of turnovers at the beginning of the game. His guys made 15 turnovers in the first half, while making a Duke walk-on named Reggie Love look like Reggie Miller.
Duke was so awful in the early going that the Wolfpack led 19-16 after 12 minutes and Tar Heel and Terrapins fans were high-fiving in the aisles.
But all the energy seemed to seep from State when Williams hit them with a brilliant burst of steals, layups, 3-pointers and dunks. After the super sophomore took over for a three-minute stretch, there are potted plants that have shown more life than the Wolfpack.
Those on the bench crossed their arms, stretched their legs and stared at the floor numbly. Those on the court were only slightly more animated, and grew more melancholy as the tide rolled against them. It wasn’t pretty to watch.
Pack big men Ron Kelley and Damon Thornton, who could have and should have had a field day, had four fouls apiece with 18 minutes left in the game and were no factor.
A pass from freshman Marcus Melvin sailed over the head of Kenny Inge, the senior captain who was supposed to anchor this team. Inge didn’t even chase the ball, preferring to stare down his young teammate.
State, trailing and needing to get attempts up quickly, endured two humiliating shot-clock violations.
The Pack got within 13 at 15:23, forced a turnover and raced down the floor. But Duke’s Chris Duhon stole the ball right back.
Guard Anthony Grundy, whose drives had given State that early lead, staggered from the game after missing all six of his second-half attempts and found no seat waiting for him. He waited for 30 seconds before a teammate would slide down and reluctantly make room.
Archie Miller, State’s top shooter, played 20 minutes and took one shot. He barely played in the second half as a discouraged Sendek, head buried in the palms of his hands, opted to look at the future — freshmen Scooter Sherrill and Trey Guidry.
Even State’s assistants looked beaten and bowed by halftime, aware that there was nothing that was going to inspire this team. Everyone was ready for this woeful season to be over.
“We would prefer to be in a different position,” admitted Sendek. “There is no escaping that fact.”
He would like to be in a position like his neighbors, the Blue Devils. Wounded but proud. Finding ways to win, even when there’s no way they should win.
Their leader, Shane Battier, won for the 123rd time in his career last night. That’s a record for ACC players, breaking the mark previously held by Duke’s Christian Laettner.
It was appropriate that Battier set his latest mark in a game in which winners and losers have rarely been more clearly defined.
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Assistant sports editor Mike London is covering the ACC Tournament for the Post.
Mike London