Frank Lorenzo
Wake Forest Demon Deacons at (3) Duke Blue Devils (-17.5, 151.5 o/u)
Before traveling to Chapel Hill for an epic tilt with the Tar Heels on the weekend, the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils (26-3, 13-3 ACC) need to take care of business against the disappointing, but still dangerous, Wake Forest Demon Deacons (13-16, 5-11 ACC) tonight at Cameron Indoor Stadium (8:00 p.m. Eastern).
Since dropping a tight road contest with Notre Dame at the end of January, Duke has rattled off nine straight wins, starting with a 69-63 upset over No. 2 Virginia in Charlottesville and culminating with a 73-54 victory over Syracuse this past weekend. (The Blue Devils also got a measure of redemption against the Irish back in February, crushing Notre Dame by 30 at Cameron (90-60) while smashing the nine-point spread.)
The win streak has the Blue Devils feeling confident, but not complacent.
“We have some momentum going, things we can build on, but we’re not satisfied,” said freshman Justise Winslow, who had 23 points and nine rebounds against the Orange. “Coming into games, we don’t expect any margin of victory. We just want to go out there and compete.”
The Blue Devils have every reason to be confident heading into tonight’s game. The team already knocked off Wake Forest on the road in early January, 73-65. Moreover, Wake Forest is near the bottom of the ACC pack and has yet to win a conference road game this year (0-7).
Wak’s first-year head coach, Danny Manning, isn’t letting the team’s road woes get him down, though.
“[Tonight’s game at Duke and Saturday’s game at Boston College are] going to be tough like all road games are,” said Manning. “We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
On the bright side for Wake Forest, the team managed to end its three-game losing streak last time out with a 69-66 win over Pittsburgh.
Duke is listed as a 17.5-point favorites for the time being. In the trends, Duke is 9-1 SU in its last ten against Wake Forest, but just 1-6 ATS in the last seven of those. The total has hit the over in four of Wake’s last five visits to Durham.
(Photo credit: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
