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RALEIGH — Tracy Smith raised his weary arms into the air as the final seconds ticked away, an open invitation to come celebrate an upset victory.

A red-clad wave of humanity didn't disappoint, surging over the end lines and washing onto the RBC Center court after the final horn sounded and N.C. State's 88-74 victory over No. 7 Duke was in the books.

Smith scored 23 points on 10-for-12 shooting, and Dennis Horner fouled out with 20 points to lead the Wolfpack (13-6, 2-3 ACC) to its biggest win in a long, long time late Wednesday night.

"That was an outstanding game," Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said. "I was so happy for our guys. I wasn't worried about the students storming the court. It was great to see them out there celebrating."

Javier Gonzalez scored 15 points and Farnold Degand had 11 for the Pack. Freshman Scott Wood scored all 10 of his points in the second half, when N.C. State opened on an 11-3 scoring run to push its lead to double digits.

Duke (15-3, 3-2) never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.

The Blue Devils took more shots, more free throws and outrebounded the Pack 40-28. But they got precious little offense outside of their Big Three, and they found no defensive answer inside for Smith, Horner and Richard Howell.

Kyle Singler (22), Jon Scheyer (21) and Nolan Smith (18) combined to score 61 of Duke's 74 points. But the inside game the Blue Devils developed over the last two games — when those Big Three had off nights — vanished somewhere along the short trip from Durham to Raleigh.

Duke is now 0-2 in ACC road games.

Miles and Mason Plumlee — the 6-foot-10 brothers who combined for 30 points and 21 rebounds four days ago in a 20-point victory over Wake Forest — combined for two points and six rebounds against the Wolfpack.

And nobody could stop Tracy Smith.

N.C. State's undersized 6-foot-8 center showed off a variety of low-post moves — and toasted a variety of low-post defenders — to help the Pack shoot 58.2 percent from the floor.

"(Duke) decided they weren't going to help when Tracy got the ball," Lowe said. "He was patient and picked his shots well. They focused on Scott (Wood), and the other guys stepped up. We took advantage of what was available to us."

Smith had a two-handed dunk and made a baseline move past Duke 7-footer Brian Zoubek for a layup on back-to-back trips during the N.C. State run to open the second half.

"We had trouble with Tracy all night," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "One, he's very good. And then the things we planned to do, we never executed. ... Our defense was the worst it's been all year. It was never, ever good tonight."

Horner made three straight baskets later in the half to push the lead to 69-52 with 8:48 left. The crowd got louder after each of the three, sensing the upset.

Duke tried to rally from the foul line, and at one point the Blue Devils' drives to the basket led to a stretch of 10 of 16 points scored on free throws.

But N.C. State answered, and when Gonzalez dribbled away all but one second of the shot clock before throwing in a deep, off-balance 3-pointer with 3:52 left the lead was 11 points and the upset seemed certain.

"You need players who can create something on their own against Duke," Lowe said. "Javy and Farnold did that tonight."

And often, when they drove the lane they found Tracy Smith.

Smith and Horner combined for 24 points in the first half for N.C. State, which led by as many as 10 points with 6:38 left.

But Duke chipped away at the lead and cut it to 41-38 on Nolan Smith's unlikely first-half buzzer-beater.

With time winding down, Scheyer drove the lane, but his floater was rejected — right to Smith, who caught it at the top of the key and shot in one motion, sinking the off-balance 3-pointer to cut the lead to three.

Any momentum from the shot evaporated with the Wolfpack's run to open the second half.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

DUKE (15-3) — Smith 7-14 2-2 18, Singler 6-16 10-12 22, Mi.Plumlee 0-1 0-0 0, Scheyer 5-16 8-10 21, Thomas 2-3 1-2 5, Ma.Plumlee 1-3 0-0 2, Dawkins 0-0 0-0 0, Kelly 0-0 0-0 0, Zoubek 1-4 4-7 6. Totals 22-57 25-33 74.

N.C. STATE (13-6) — Gonzalez 4-9 5-6 15, Degand 3-6 4-5 11, Wood 3-5 3-3 10, T.Smith 10-12 3-4 23, Horner 8-15 3-5 20, Howell 3-5 1-3 7, Vandenberg 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Davis 0-1 0-0 0, Mays 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 32-55 19-26 88.

Halftime—N.C. State 41-38.
3-point goals—Duke 5-13 (Scheyer 3-7, Smith 2-3, Singler 0-3), N.C. State 5-12 (Gonzalez 2-4, Wood 1-1, Degand 1-1, Horner 1-5, Howell 0-1).
Fouled out—Horner.
Rebounds—Duke 40 (Thomas 12), N.C. State 28 (Howell, T.Smith 5).
Assists—Duke 8 (Scheyer, Smith, Thomas 2), N.C. State 18 (Gonzalez 8).
Total fouls—Duke 21, N.C. State 24.
A—18,925.