The Duke Blue Devils took on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a game with two different storylines. The Blue Devils were coming off of their most disappointing loss of the season in overtime to the Syracuse Orange and looking to keep their chances of winning the ACC alive, and the Demon Deacons were coming off of a loss to a lesser Georgia Tech team which, with a win, could have given them more NCAA Tournament hope.

Wake Forest never stood a chance. It took a whole two minutes for the Blue Devils to get started, but Duke dominated once Jabari Parker got some help from Rasheed Sulaimon. Arnaud-William Adala Moto had a double-double for the Demon Deacons, but it wasn’t enough. Parker finished with 21 and Sulaimon finished with 19 en route to an 83-63 win for Duke over Wake Forest.

The Blue Devils will be glad to have avoided a trap game against a pesky team that needed a win. Duke still has an opportunity to play Syracuse again, but this time at home. Next to the rematch against the Orange, the Blue Devils do not play a team that should be able to defeat them. They play the North Carolina Tar Heels twice, but, if UNC stays true to form, the Tar Heels will lose both games. With a little luck, Duke could still get a favorable seed for the ACC tournament and even have a small chance of winning the ACC. Syracuse and the Virginia Cavaliers both have more difficult schedules to finish conference play.

Wake Forest, on the other hand, might have fallen too far to climb out of the middle of the ACC and get into the tournament talk. After their third-straight loss, they would need to win out and hope that a few other teams close to the bubble started losing. The Demon Deacons probably won’t make it to the 2014 NCAA Tournament this season, but they deserve a spot in the NIT.

Taylor Sturm is an SEC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.