Duke had to survive a tight battle against an in-state rival, and it lost big man Khaman Maluach down the stretch, but the Blue Devils kept their undefeated conference record intact on Monday night.

The No. 2-ranked Blue Devils held on late at Cameron Indoor Stadium to grab a 74-64 win over NC State. That pushed them to 18-2 on the season and a perfect 10-0 in ACC play. Star freshman Cooper Flagg led the way with 28 points and seven rebounds while shooting 8 of 17 from the field. It marked his third straight game with at least 24 points.

NC State took a four-point lead into the locker room at halftime and seemed to be in position to threaten the rare upset in Durham, but it came out of the break completely flat and nearly gave the game away immediately. Duke opened the second half on a long 12-0 burst to take what was its first lead since the opening minutes.

The Wolfpack hung around from that point on, however, and climbed within a single possession multiple times. The Blue Devils lost big man Maluach late in the second half, too, after he was spotted vomiting near the baseline. The 7-foot-2 freshman didn’t appear to get hit before throwing up, but it did not look good and took a ton of towels to clean up.

Maluach had four points and eight rebounds at the time. He left for the locker room and did not return. Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after the game that Maluach was OK.

“He wasn't sick, it's just he was cramping, chugged a lot of Gatorade quickly,” Scheyer told reporters. “And that's what happened when he threw up. But I just think it speaks to [Maluach's] character. He was doing whatever he could to get back in the game. Obviously, he drank too much there.”

But, after Maluach left the game, NC State’s offense went stagnant. The Wolfpack went nearly three full minutes without scoring, which allowed Duke to jump back in control. NC State made just a single field goal the rest of the way — which came in the form of a Brandon Huntley-Hatfield layup — as Duke pushed ahead to seal the 10-point win.

Dontrez Styles led NC State with 18 points and three rebounds, and Trey Parker finished with 15 points off the bench. Huntley-Hatfield added 10 points and was the only other player to hit double figures for the Wolfpack, who fell to 9-11 on the season and 2-7 in ACC play after their fifth straight loss.

Kon Knueppel added 19 points to Flagg's 28 for the Blue Devils, and Sion James finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Duke shot just 4 of 20 from the 3-point line as a team, all but one of which came from Knueppel.

Duke will host North Carolina on Saturday, where it will attempt to pick up its 15th straight win. Though the Blue Devils' schedule has been favorable so far — they haven't played a ranked opponent since beating Auburn on Dec. 4, and they have only one ranked opponent left on their schedule the rest of the way — Flagg keeps dominating and they keep winning. Even in what is undoubtedly a down year in the ACC, that has to count for something.