Duke kept Florida State's Michael Snaer in check all afternoon. Credit: STEVE CANNON/AP)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Road wins have been particularly hard to come by this year in the ACC, but the Blue Devils looked plenty comfortable at Florida State. Duke made shots at its best rate all year in a 79-60 victory. The 19-point win is the biggest road victory in the ACC this year.

“You've got to give Duke credit,” Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton said. “They came in and they just made shots. I mean, my goodness, it seemed like they were raining 3s.”

No. 5 Duke (19-2, 6-2 in the ACC) shot a season-high 60.8 percent from the field and made 11-of-18 shots (61.1 percent) from 3-point range. Seth Curry led the Blue Devils with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor (5-of-7 from deep), and Quinn Cook added 18 thanks in large part to 4-of-6 shooting from downtown.

CHAPEL HILL — Marcus Paige, the North Carolina freshman point guard, hadn’t scored more than eight points in any of the Tar Heels’ previous five games. He scored that many in overtime on Saturday to help lead the Heels to a 72-60 victory against Virginia Tech.

The 12-point margin was hardly indicative of the struggle UNC (15-6, 5-3) faced much of the game. The Hokies (11-10, 2-6) began the game on a 12-0 run, and the Heels trailed by six, 32-26, at halftime. But UNC continued to whittle away Virginia Tech’s lead, and the teams went into overtime tied at 55.

Paige took over from there. He made a long 3-pointer from the left side to give the Heels a four-point lead early in overtime, and then he made a jumper from the right baseline that put UNC ahead by six. The Hokies’ cut the Heels’ lead to five, but never came any closer the rest of the way.

Mason Plumlee and the Blue Devils pulled out a rare ACC road win at Wake Forest. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Every Saturday, the News & Observer takes a look around the ACC. That also provides an opportunity to check in with the Blue Devils and look for any emerging trends.

After Duke’s tight win at Wake Forest, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked about winning big versus winning close games, and the clearly exasperated coach cut the question off.

“It means the other team probably died. If you won by 20 in this conference it means that the team that lost cooperated,” Krzyzewski said.

RALEIGH — Injured guard Lorenzo Brown is unlikely to play in Saturday's game against first-place Miami, N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said at his press conference on Friday.

Brown sprained his left ankle in Tuesday's loss at Virginia and has been in a walking boot since and has not practiced. Gottfried didn't rule Brown out for the Miami game but he didn't sound optimistic about his chances of playing, either.

"The probability, in my mind, for him to be recovered enough to cut and move and sprint and jump is pretty slim," Gottfried said. "We have to prepare as if he's not going to play and then we'll go from there."

Junior guard Lorenzo Brown wore a walking boot on his left foot to class on Wednesday, N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said on his weekly radio show, and his status for Saturday's game with Miami is still up in the air.

Brown, who sprained his left ankle in the first half of Tuesday's loss at Virginia, received treatment from team trainer Ryan Holleman on Wednesday, according to Gottfried, who sounded pessimistic about Brown's status for the Wolfpack's next game.

"He was limping pretty good today, which was not a good sign," Gottfried said on his radio show. "But we're just going to work with him around the clock."

Three Points from N.C. State's 58-55 loss at Virginia:

1) Margin of error

N.C. State's rotation in ACC play has consisted of six players with only freshman forward T.J. Warren averaging more than 5.8 minutes off the bench.

Coach Mark Gottfried is more comfortable with fewer moving parts and clearly defined roles. He relied on a seven-man rotation last season and he has had success with that formula. When Gottfried was an assistant coach at UCLA for Jim Harrick, the Bruins won the national title in 1995 with a seven-man rotation.

It's a ride-or-die mentality and when an injury or foul trouble happens, the results are predictable. When you use only six players, not matter how good those six are, there's no margin of error.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — N.C. State expected to play Tuesday's game at Virginia without a completely healthy C.J. Leslie.

The Wolfpack didn't expect to lose Lorenzo Brown midway through the first half.

Joe Harris scored 22 points to lead Virginia to a 58-55 win on Tuesday, handing No. 19 N.C. State its third straight road loss.

Duke fell just four spots after taking a beating at Miami and giving one to Maryland. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

The voters didn't judge Duke too harshly for what happened in Miami.

After losing by 27 at Miami and beating Maryland by 20 at home, Duke was ranked No. 5 in the latest AP poll. Michigan is the new No. 1 team, followed by Kansas, Indiana and Florida. The Blue Devils have been ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll for 106 straight weeks, dating back to Nov. 2007. The record is 155 weeks by UCLA from 1966-1976.

Duke (17-2, 4-2 in the ACC) was ranked anywhere between No. 3 and No. 13 on the 65 AP ballots. Four voters had the Blue Devils at No. 3—Kevin Dunleavy of the The Washington (Va.) Examiner, Roger Clarkson of the The Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, Ryan Thorburn of the Daily (Col.) Camera and Ryan Wood of the Opelika-Auburn (Ala.) News.

Two voters—Tom Keegan of the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World and Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated—had Duke out of the top 10. Keegan had them at No. 11 and Davis at No. 13.

In addition to being for a good cause, these Infiniti Coaches' Charity Challenge commercials are actually pretty funny.

This one stars N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried and UNC's Roy Williams, and the voiceover is done by Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

And unless, there was some serious high-tech editing (which is possible), it also appears that Gottfried and Williams actually got together to film the commercial (unlike the old "Guitar Hero" ad with Krzyzewski and Williams.)

There's more information on the Coaches' Charity Challenge at this web site.

RALEIGH — N.C. State's marketing campaign proclaims, "This is our State."

After Saturday's six-years-in-the-making win over North Carolina, it's at least the Wolfpack's Triangle. N.C. State handled the Tar Heels 91-83 in front of an electric, sold out crowd at PNC Arena.

With 20 points and 11 assists from junior guard Lorenzo Brown, No. 18 N.C. State ended a 13-game losing streak to the Tar Heels (13-6, 3-3 ACC), who had entered the game with 19 wins in 20 games in the series under coach Roy Williams.