WINSTON-SALEM— Grab a pen and some paper, ACC coaches:the Blue Devils announced the secret to getting Mike Dunleavy to miss a shot.

Dunleavy scored a career-high 30 points on 11-for-15 shooting Thursday night as the Blue Devils bombarded Wake Forest 90-61 at the Joel Coliseum.

Dunleavy drilled eight straight shots, starting with his nothing-but-net half-court rainbow to beat the halftime buzzer and ending with 2:30 left in the game. It was a performance reminiscent of Dunleavy’s former career-high game, when he put on a show at N.C. State.

Oddly enough, both big halves ended with a miss.

“The joke behind that is Coach — right when I was getting ready to shoot it — calls timeout, expecting it to go in. Both of them didn’t go in,”said Dunleavy, who turned to Mike Krzyzewski after his missed 3-pointer Thursday and smiled.

“I looked over and started laughing and said, ‘Could you please not do that? I know you have a lot of confidence in me, but let’s wait ‘til it goes down first.’ ”

Krzyzewski got his timeout to put reserves in the next time down the court after a Dunleavy steal. The junior exited to awed applause even from the Wake fans after draining 6 of 8 shots from the 3-point line, adding nine rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Wake, ranked 20th in the nation, didn’t give its fans much to cheer about against Duke, which played its first game at No. 3 in the nation following Sunday’s loss at Maryland.

The Deacs (18-9 overall, 8-5 ACC) couldn’t take advantage of Duke’s recent defeat because Blue Devil co-captains Dunleavy and Jason Williams did.

In the first half, the team leaders inspired the squad with aggressive play and plenty of shot-making. The Devils shot 55 percent from the floor the first 20 minutes, then jumped to an unreal 75 percent to close the game.

Most importantly, Duke (24-2, 12-2) played defense. When Wake’s Taron Downey drained a 3-pointer with 11:29 remaining, the Deacs trailed just 21-17. Their next field goal came on a Jamaal Levy tip-in —30 seconds before halftime.

In that 11-minute stretch, Wake managed points on eight free throws and turned the ball over 10 times.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win,”Deacs head coach Skip Prosser said. “We had 15 turnovers. We got the ball close to the basket and didn’t finish. For a team as good as Duke, we didn’t put up a fight. It mystifies me, it’s very disappointing.”

The first-half dagger came from Dunleavy, who inbounded the ball to Casey Sanders with 3.3 seconds to go, got it right back and took off one step behind half court and launched his shot on a majestic arc.

“I got a good run under it, had some rhythm with the shot,”Dunleavy said. “It’s something where you’re in the gym a lot, messing around, you’re going to shoot a lot of those.”

Williams actually led all scorers at the break with 17, and finished with 26 on equally strong 10-for-18 shooting. But Dunleavy stole the show in the final 20 minutes. His layup and 3-pointer early on stretched the lead to 57-33.

Dunleavy started a personal 8-1 run later with a side-stepping 3-pointer, a tough pull-up jumper with the shot clock running down and another 3-pointer off a screen for an 84-52 lead.

“You get in a rhythm and everything feels good when it comes off your hand,”Dunleavy said. “You want to shoot the ball, you want it in your hands. It’s a great feeling to have.”

Dunleavy so wowed the crowd that the Wake fans started cheering for him to shoot every time he touched the ball —including once from 35 feet with a man all over him.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Coach might’ve had me by the neck,”a laughing Dunleavy said. “If it was my world — if it was a video game or something — I would’ve shot it.”

Dunleavy’s fun and games left the Deacs in pain.

“The whole team was in a groove and we didn’t do anything to get them out of that groove,”said Broderick Hicks, who scored 10 points. “We don’t feel like we made them play hard. They were out there laughing and talking.”

For Duke, Thursday’s win proved the perfect cure for Sunday’s defeat.

“I think we’ve played well all year long. People lose,”Krzyzewski said. “I wish I coached every year and had two losses at this time of the year.”

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NOTES: Bear in mind, calling timeout to freeze Dunleavy will only work five times per game. … Williams and Chris Duhon each dished out eight assists. Duke finished with 22 assists to 21 turnovers. Wake:a nightmarish six assist to 21 turnover ratio. …Wake big man Darius Songaila never got untracked. He scored 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting and turned the ball over eight times. …The Deacs held an unheard-of free-throw advantage over the Devils: 22-for-30 to Duke’s 6-for-7.

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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com .