Early in the season, Duke basketball rookies Khaman Maluach and Cooper Flagg dealt with cramping. The Blue Devils appeared to have solved that problem.

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However, the setback resurfaced in unmistakable fashion with 4:21 to play in Duke’s 74-64 home win over the NC State Wolfpack (9-11, 2-7 ACC) in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday night, as the 7-foot-2, 250-pound Maluach left evidence along the baseline on Coach K Court.

According to third-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer, whose No. 2-ranked Blue Devils (18-2, 10-0 ACC) extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 14 contests, Maluach’s game-delaying vomit stemmed from the overconsumption of Gatorade in an attempt to overcome his cramping.

“He wasn’t sick,” Scheyer noted about Maluach, a projected one-and-done first round draft pick who totaled four points, eight rebounds, and two blocks in 27 minutes against the Wolfpack. “Just, he was cramping, chugged a lot of Gatorade quickly, and that’s what happened when he threw up…

“Again, I think it just speaks to the character. Like, he was doing whatever he could to get back in the game. It just didn’t [work]. Obviously, he just drank too much there.

“So, he felt better after the game. I’m worried about him. We have to get him rested.

“But I think, for our freshmen, this is the first time I saw them [respond to] a battle on Saturday, gotta turn around, it’s a battle tonight.

“Just, we have to help [Maluach] better. I have to help him better, however that is, to have him more ready to go physically.”

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