WINSTON-SALEM – Duke looked like it was still in the nine-day break that it just came out of; Wake Forest barely looked like the same team that was run off the floor at Rutgers on Saturday.

It added up to Wake’s 81-70 win over No. 14 Duke on Tuesday night at Joel Coliseum.

“They outplayed us, they were the hungrier team,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “I thought their sense of urgency coming off of Saturday, you could really tell.

“And for us, we didn’t have that.”

Duke’s only lead was 4-2. The Blue Devils (10-3, 1-1 ACC) trailed by nine at halftime and the closest they came to Wake’s lead in the second half was seven.

Problems were plentiful for Duke, beyond missing Dereck Lively II and Dariq Whitehead.

Duke was outrebounded 37-29, marking the third time this season — and second in as many ACC games — that the Blue Devils have been beaten on the boards. It’s the first time this year that Duke hasn’t held an opponent under its season scoring average; Wake Forest (9-4, 1-1) was coming off an 81-57 loss to Rutgers and hadn’t scored more than 80 points since a Nov. 26 blowout of Hampton.

“It’s inexcusable. It’s toughness and it’s effort,” forward Ryan Young said of Duke losing the rebounding margin. “There’s not much else that goes into rebounding and we know that. We take pride in that being a strength of ours and it was embarrassing that we couldn’t win that tonight.”

This is the first time that Duke has lost for the third time in a season before January since the 1982-83 season — Mike Krzyzewski’s third in Durham.

Duke announced Tuesday afternoon that Lively and Whitehead would miss the game because of non-COVID illness. That threw the Blue Devils back into the same starting lineup they used for the first three games of the season, with Young starting at the 5-spot.

“We’ve played without our full team in about half of our games or whatever it is, you have to keep perspective,” Scheyer said, “but you also have to hate the result.”

Missing Whitehead was a problem for Duke’s offense; it mattered more defensively that Lively was out, as it left the Blue Devils without their only rim-protector.

Wake Forest penetrated Duke’s defense early and often, shooting 19 of 34 from inside the arc. Guards Tyree Appleby and Cameron Hildreth scored 18 and 16 points, respectively, to lead the Deacons.

“They were able to get into our paint pretty easily and that’s something that we’ve been able to do successfully, come out and guard teams,” Young said. “They were able to get to the free-throw line against us, get into the paint and maneuver.”

Duke was 3-for-15 on 3-pointers in the first half; in related news, the Blue Devils didn’t attempt a 3-pointer for the first eight minutes of the second half.

The Blue Devils scored more consistently in that opening stretch of the second half; the problem was they couldn’t string together any defensive stops.

“That’s our team. We’re a team that needs to get to the paint,” Scheyer said. “I think we’re a good shooting team, but it’s not what we do first. … I thought we settled a little bit early, but we also took some good shots and missed.

“That’s how it goes sometimes and that’s why your defense needs to be consistent. Defense for us is where we’ve hung our hat and we need to get back to that. That wasn’t there tonight.”

TIP-INS: This is the second straight season that Duke has lost its first road game of the season — last season it was Duke’s first loss, at Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. … Kyle Filipowski failed to score in double figures for the first time this season. He and Jeremy Roach both had nine points apiece, and they combined for 10 turnovers (Duke had 13 turnovers total). … Sophomore guard Jaylen Blakes scored 17 points to lead Duke, marking the first time he’s scored in double figures. Mark Mitchell scored 14 and Young had 10 points and nine rebounds.