FINAL: Duke 76, N.C. State 52— Indeed, Zafirovski and Peters have gotten off the bench and are preparing to check in for 1:40 of ACC playing time. They receive a loud ovation from the crowd as Hairston sinks a free throw. Zafirovski quickly gets in the scorebook with a “kneeing” foul. The rest of the game comes to a close uneventfully, as the Crazies begin a “Go To Hell Carolina” chant in preparation for Wednesday’s showdown. That’s it from The Chronicle’s Sports Blog—check out the print edition Monday for all the details on this victory.

2:50 2nd Half: Duke 75, N.C. State 48— At least the fans are staying involved in this blowout, as the graduate students makes liberal use of N.C. State’s renowned College of Agriculture and Life Sciences by serenading the Wolfpack with a rendition of Old McDonald. The students also serenade C.J. Williams as he leaves the game with his fifth foul. Thanks to a generous Cameron Crazy, Walker Schiff, for correcting me on that last point.

The crowd gets loud once again as fan-favorite Josh Hairston earns a trip to the line with an and-one layup, and yet another N.C. State player is serenaded with the “four!” chant from the crowd. Hairston enders himself to the crowd once again by diving on the floor for a loose ball, sliding a good 10 feet and nearly causing an N.C. State turnover. Singler and Smith both appear to have taken seats on the bench for the remainder of the game, and it looks as if the only remaining drama involves whether Casey Peters and Todd Zafirovski will get to see the floor.

8:14 2nd Half: Duke 69, N.C. State 39- Mason Plumlee continues to play hard despite Duke’s seemingly insurmountable lead, epitomized by him blocking a fastbreak layup following the N.C. State timeout.

Julia Love would like me to mention her on the blog.  We always must recognize when News dignitaries grace the sports section with their presence. She is, however, an associate editor for the Sports Section, despite this being her first time on Cameron’s press row.

Mason Plumlee keeps getting sent to the free-throw line by the Wolfpack, who would rather force him to convert rather than give him easy dunks. The strategy seems to be working, as the sophomore is only 2-for-7 from the line, but has just earned another double-double with his tenth rebound. After a Tyler Thornton fastbreak lay-up, Lowe calls yet another timeout as the lead balloons to 30. It’s safe to say that there’s nothing left to determine in this game but the final score.

11:29 2nd Half: Duke 64, N.C. State 38- Kyle Singler quickly picks up two fouls and sits with a total of four, but the way this contest is going it shouldn’t matter much. Mason Plumlee continues to dominate in the post, though his brother Miles continues to struggle defensively thanks to his tendency to over-pursue the ball.

After a Duke timeout, Seth Curry clanks a contested three and Miles Plumlee hacks DeShawn Painter’s attempt at a fast-break dunk. Mason Plumlee finally makes a free throw, much to the delight of the crowd, to put Duke’s lead back at 24. The elder Plumlee doesn’t have any better success at the line after missing an easy tip-in, but he converts one of the charity shots.

Don’t tell Nolan Smith that his team is up more than 20, though—after corralling his own offensive rebound, Smith dove on the floor for a loose ball and tried to call timeout. The officials, however, failed to see his signal and called a jumpball. On the inbounds, Seth Curry is fouled and sent to the line in the one-and-one, and finally reverses his free-throw woes. The last 12 minutes of this game could be painfully long with Duke already in the bonus, and the Wolfpack only two Duke fouls away.  Curry follows up his free throws with a transition three, Sidney Lowe calls another timeout, and Duke is up 26 with under 12 minutes to go.

15:30 2nd Half: Duke 55, N.C. State 30— Duke’s statistical dominance in the first half was uncanny—the Blue Devils shot nearly 65% from the field and 60% from behind the arc. N.C State, meanwhile, was held to a 44% shooting, no three-point field goals, and committed 12 turnovers compared to Duke’s 4.  Also of note: I’ve been informed by one of my colleagues that C.J. Leslie was suspended for a violation of team rules. So there’s one mystery solved.

The Blue Devils come out of the locker room cold, but N.c. State isn’t faring much better offensively. Defensively, though, the Wolfpack have picked up the intensity thanks to a highlight-reel block by Howell on Smith. But Mason Plumlee reverses Duke’s fortunes with a pretty looking turn-around hook shot in the post. Plumlee is having easily his best offensive game in weeks and is currently 6-for-7 from the field.

0:00 1st Half: Duke 53, N.C. State 24— Curry’s struggles from the free-throw line continue after the break, but Smith continues his dominance with another masterful drive to push his point total to 18. More importantly though, he’s doing it with a very efficient 6-for-7 shooting performance. The frustration is become evident for the Wolfpack, too, as after he is called for a blocking foul on Singler Wolfpack guard Ryan Harrow has come rather choice words for the officials.

The half comes to a close rather uneventfully, but Duke’s dominance this game has been clear. More after the break.

Interesting note: N.C. State super-freshman C.J. Leslie has not yet seen the floor in the contest despite averaging more than 10 points a game. As no injury was announced, Leslie could be in Lowe’s doghouse—something to watch for as it looks more and more likely that the second-half will have little consequence on the outcome of this game.

Another interesting, but more disturbing, note: seth Curry continues to struggle from the charity stripe, missing yet two more free-throws.

3:47 1st Half: Duke 45, N.C. State 21— While Miles Plumlee’s defense and rebounding has improved over the past few weeks, his offensive game continues to devolve. After missing a wide-open mid-range jumper minutes ago, Plumlee was called for an obvious travel on a post move and nearly turned the ball on an ill-advised drive to the hoop. Not surprisingly, his brother replaces him in the lineup, and coach Krzyzewski immediately pulls him aside as he comes to the bench.

A strange play finally spurs the N.C. State offense—after a Tracy Smith shot went over the backboard, Lorenzo Brown was able to grab the ball before it went out of bounds and convert for a three-point play. But any momentum is quickly quashed by another Mason Plumlee dunk, thanks largely to the playmaking skills of Smith, who seems to be playing the point with much more confidence today. As further justification, Smith pulls a Kyrie Irving-esque move by singlehandedly splitting three defenders en-route to another thunderous dunk. Smith then finds Miles Plumlee with a rocket pass which the elder Plumlee converts despite very nearly being packed by the rim. After another stop, Smith then finds Seth Curry for a transition three, which he sinks plus the foul. Cameron erupts in a cacophony as loud as I’ve heard all season, and Duke claims a 45-21 lead. For the first time in ACC season, the Crazies chant “More than double!”

7:43 1st Half: Duke 31, N.C. State 12— The Wolfpack’s defensive intensity seems to have picked up after the timeout, although their offensive struggles persist. The Wolfpack nearly forced Singler into a turnover after he slipped underneath the basket following a nice pass from Miles Plumlee, but a foul call allowed Seth Curry to convert on the subsequent inbounds play. Another N.C. State turnover gives the Blue Devils the ball back as we head into another media timeout.

9:30 1st Half: Duke 29, N.C. State 10— The Crazies have certainly woken up from their post-Personal Check’s stupor after a fantastic fast-break dunk by Mason Plumlee. After being fouled as well, he lifted himself off the floor and immediately turned to the student section to spur them into a frenzy. On Duke’s next possession he scored a put-back followed that up with a steal on the defensive end.  As an encore he takes a fairly simple looking inbounds play and turns it into a baseline dunk.  It looks more and more like the younger Plumlee is returning to his CBE Classic form, as opposed to his early ACC woes.

A Seth Curry three and Nolan Smith transition basket later, the Crazies are officially in a frenzy. Smith turns to the crowd and gives a quick smirk following the thunderous tomahawk slam, and Lowe calls his second timeout as Duke’s lead has ballooned to 19. This one could get ugly, folks.

11:56 1st Half: Duke 18, N.C. State 8— Duke quickly gets going from three-point range behind the shooting of Dawkins and Smith, forcing embattled Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe to take an early timeout. Interesting to note the aggressiveness with which the Blue Devils big-men, especially Miles Plumlee, are guarding their men away from the paint—while it has led to some turnovers already, it is also giving these poor shooting big men opportunities to find open space in the paint. We’ll see how the strategy pans out.  The timeout proves unproductive though, as N.C. State turns the ball over once again as we head into the second media timeout.

14:07 1st Half: Duke 10, N.C. State 8— It’s been a sloppy game so far on both sides, as both Duke and N.C. State have coughed the ball over twice. The Blue Devils have had no answer for N.C. State’s big men, specifically 6-8, 261 pound Richard Howell, but the Wolfpack have been similarly unable to stop Kyle Singler, who has continued his shooting streak with a 3-for-4 start from the field. As we resume play Duke’s sharpshooters in Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry enter the game.

PREGAME: Starting lineups: Richard Howell, Lorenzo Brown, Javier Gonzalez, Scott Wood, and Tracy Smith for N.C State, and Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, and, once again, Tyler Thornton for the Blue Devils. Thornton gets a loud ovation from the crowd in his first home start.

PREGAME: Welcome to another edition of The Chronicle Sports Blog’s live blog. It’s been too long since we last talked, loyal readers.

We’re about nine minutes from tipoff in a fairly loud Cameron—somewhat surprising considering last night’s festivities in K-ville. The Crazies got especially riled up when they saw Kyrie Irving on the court, cast free, for the first time in two months. Irving was dribbling a basketball and the Crazies were imploring him to put up a shot, but to no avail.

We’ll be back soon with the starting lineups for this inter-state rivalry.