Duke vs. Wake Forest: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2017 Regular Season

A three-pointer from Luke Kennard with 6.6 seconds remaining allowed No. 17 Duke to steal an 85-83 win from Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Kennard's three gave Duke its first lead since the game was 18-17 with 10:11 remaining in the first half.

It was the cherry on top of a nearly perfect day for the Duke star, who recorded 34 points on 11-of-14 shooting. Thirty of those points came in the second half.

Along with Grayson Allen's 19 points, the Blue Devils had just enough to get by a Wake Forest program that was fueled by a career-high 26 points from Bryant Crawford and another 20 from John Collins.

After losing its early first-half lead, Duke trailed Wake Forest by 10 at halftime.

The Demon Deacons built such a lead by holding Kennard to just four points in the first 20 minutes.

On top of his early struggles, the Blue Devils were hampered by foul trouble in the frontcourt, which forced both Jayson Tatum and Amile Jefferson to sit for extended periods.

On the day, Duke committed 30 fouls, hitting the 30-foul mark for the first time since 2008, according to ESPN College Basketball.

That forced the Blue Devils to turn to center Antonio Vrankovic, who had not played in 10 of the team's last 11 games leading into Saturday. Like most of his Duke teammates, Vrankovic had difficulties scoring, as Kennard and Allen had little offensive support.

No other Duke player recorded a double-digit output. Jefferson and Tatum combined for just 12 points.

Add 15 Blue Devils turnovers, and things looked grim for a program that had lost three of its last four games.

Tempers seemed to boil over with five minutes left in the game, when a scuffle involving Allen and Wake Forest's Brandon Childress took place in front of the Blue Devils bench.

Allen was hit with a personal foul, while Childress received a technical.

Still, Duke managed to stay within striking distance thanks to seven straight points from Kennard, which brought the deficit to four with two minutes left.

A three from Allen made it an 83-82 game with just 52 seconds left, and a missed three from Keyshawn Woods gave Duke the ball back with 15 seconds remaining, setting up Kennard's heroics.

This could have been one of the most important regular-season wins for a Duke program that has been in turmoil under interim head coach Jeff Capel.

On Thursday, Jeff Goodman and Dana O'Neil of ESPN.com reported head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is recovering from back surgery, banned Duke players from using the locker room and wearing Duke apparel because of the team's recent struggles.

The win lifted Duke to 16-5 on the year and 4-4 in ACC play, but it is looking up at seven other programs within the conference. Wake Forest dropped to 12-9 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

It doesn't get easier for Duke, either, as a matchup with No. 14 Notre Dame awaits Monday. Wake Forest will play Boston College on Tuesday.

Postgame Reaction

It was just another crazy turn in an eventful year for Capel, who spoke with the media after the game, via Duke Basketball:

While he's no Krzyzewski, Capel was given plenty of credit by Kennard for the play he drew up at the end of the game, via Duke Basketball:

But Kennard was deserving of praise given the second half he had and his teammate Allen was willing to bestow it upon him, via Jonathan M. Alexander of the News & Observer:

"

He just kept hitting shots so we just kept going to him. You’ve got to stay with the hot hand and he’s been big for us all season. We knew whenever he got the ball off, it looked like it was going in.

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As long as Duke can find ways to pull out games in the way it did on Saturday, then it should see its standing in the ACC improve as well as its chances to get a favorable seed in the NCAA Tournament.