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DURHAM -- Not everyone in the 317th consecutive sell-out crowd at steamy Cameron Indoor Stadium was thrilled by what they saw Saturday night.

Three fans seated high in the end zone behind the N.C. State basket sat quietly while the people around them made their way to the exits after No. 5 Duke's 76-52 drubbing of the Wolfpack.

All three wore blood-red N.C. State T-shirts -- and paper bags over their heads.

Make no mistake: Duke (21-2, 8-1 ACC) was good Saturday night. Senior guard Nolan Smith scored 20 points. Mason Plumlee finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Kyle Singler just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine boards.

Meanwhile, N.C. State (12-11, 2-7) was awful. Consider:

l Duke shot 19 percent from the floor in the second half and still won by 24.

l Duke shot 17-for-32 from the foul line and still won by 24.

l State stars Tracy Smith (14.7 ppg) and Scott Wood (10.3 ppg) combined for four points on 2-for-14 shooting.

The Wolfpack's lone bright spot was Richard Howell, who scored 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting. Howell had eight of State's first 10 points.

Then Duke went on a rim-rocking, game-changing 21-2 scoring run to put the game away early. The Blue Devils had seven dunks in the first half and led by 30 points 2:11 before halftime.

"To be up like that in an ACC game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "that's not going to happen hardly at all. I was kind of shocked by that and the lead we had at halftime."

It fits a disturbing pattern for N.C. State, which has lost four in a row and seven of eight.

"Because of the way we started the game, I'm not going to say it's rock bottom," Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said. Then he shook his head. "But it's not good. It's not good."

The Wolfpack is a team in trouble, and Cameron is not a place to get well. Duke has won 31 in a row on its home floor and beaten N.C. State 17 of the last 18 times in Durham.

And State? In its four-game losing streak, the Pack has lost by close to 16 points per game.

"I'm very disappointed in our starts the last four games," Lowe said. "That's really been a problem. We've gotten ourselves in a hole so fast, and then it's an uphill battle. But I'm not going to say it's rock bottom. There's still a lot to play for, and I think our kids showed that in the second half."

State did play better in the second half, particularly on defense.

Nolan Smith scored two points and Kyle Singler had four in the final 20 minutes.

But all the Wolfpack could do was shave five points off Duke's 29-point halftime lead.

So most of the sell-out crowd filed out of Cameron happy.

Meanwhile, three men with paper bags covering their heads sat and absorbed the latest loss. And now the Wolfpack has just seven games left in a regular season gone sour.

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