WINSTON-SALEM___Wake Forest basketball players have more emblems on their jerseys than any athletic figures outside a NASCAR infield.

There is the horizontal black strip affixed above the surnames on their backs, worn somewhere on every ACC jersey to commemorate those murdered last spring at Virginia Tech. There is an American flag sewn above the heart, another ACC-wide gesture seen in few other conferences. There is a “WF” at the point of each Wake Forest V-neck, a design fillip.

Finally, and uniquely, there is a simulated twist of ribbon high on the right front of Wake jerseys, bisected by the word “Coach” in honor of Skip Prosser, who died suddenly less than seven months ago.

“I know if Coach was here, he would be so proud of us,” sophomore point guard Ish Smith said following Wake’s 86-73 home conquest of second-ranked Duke. “I know a couple of guys got emotional, because we know how much Coach loved this Tobacco Road – N.C. State, Duke, and Carolina.”

The surprisingly decisive result against Duke sent students rushing onto the floor at Joel Coliseum to celebrate Wake’s 14th victory in 15 home games, and burnished one of this or any year’s feel-good stories. The Deacs now have more overall wins (16) and more ACC wins (6) than they achieved last season. Beating Duke also lent credence to the NCAA aspirations of a squad picked to finish 11th in the conference.

“Hopefully if, in March, there’s a chance we’re there on the bubble, that would be a good win that might get us over the top,” Wake coach Dino Gaudio said. Until Sunday night, most observers expected the ACC to have four NCAA teams – Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, and Maryland.

Following a week’s layoff, the dangerous Deacons travel to Chapel Hill for their only contest of the year with the Tar Heels, now only a game behind Duke in the ACC standings.

The Heels will face a Wake squad recruited by Prosser, coached by a staff he assembled, and coming off three wins in a row.

Yet the players who established the tone and paced the scoring against Duke never played a minute for the deceased coach. Freshman guard Jeff Teague had 26 points, one shy of his season high. Freshman forward James Johnson, whose mother and high school principal were in town from Cheyenne, Wyoming, contributed 24 points and a personal-best 16 rebounds.

Teague and the 6-8 Johnson pace the Deacons in scoring this season, the only freshman duo to lead an ACC squad in point production. They are the vanguard of a team that is mobile, aggressive, and increasingly confident.

“I think the team that fought harder, and had more energy, won,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said following the game. “Their team is quick. Very athletic, quick. That’s their strength, and in Johnson they have a guy who has perimeter skills and a big guy’s body. He’s an outstanding player. And so they have a very well-run system to take advantage of their strengths.”

Duke has a pretty good scheme, too. The Blue Devils came to Winston-Salem undefeated in ACC play, with a single loss in 23 outings overall, suffered against Pittburgh in late December.

The Blue Devils have played outside-in all season, an approach as unusual as it has been effective. They liberally mix 3-pointers (23 attempts per game) with drives to the basket, deny entry passes to the post, and thrive on forcing turnovers that lead to fast break baskets. In ACC competition prior to visiting Wake, the Devils led in steals, forced nearly seven more turnovers per game than they committed, made more 3-pointers than anyone else, and enjoyed the league’s top scoring margin.

But Wake Forest matched up well with Duke, particularly in the backcourt, and decided to force the visitors to drive the lane rather than fire openly from outside.

Teague set the tone from the outset, scoring eight quick points for the Deacons, twice hitting 3-pointers on relocation passes following missed inside shots. “I thought us getting off to a good start was really big,” Gaudio said. “Jeff Teague, he’s really a courageous young guy. He got us off to just a terrific, terrific start, and let us know we could play with these guys.”

Teague said he was merely applying the lessons of his childhood. “You can’t play scared against Duke, they’ll kill you,” he said. “Growing up in Indianapolis, you play against great players all the time. They will embarrass you if you go out there and play scared.”

Wake built a 47-42 halftime edge, only the fourth time all season Duke trailed after 20 minutes. Predictably, the Blue Devils came out smoking in the second half, going on an 18-8 run to open the period. With Duke leading 60-55 and 11:15 to go, Gaudio called timeout.

“I looked at the kids and I said, ‘What you’re thinking right now is really important,’” the coach recalled. “Whether we think we can win, whether we think we can go out there and get the job done. What we’re thinking, our mindset right now, is really important. We’re going to find out what we’re made of. And I think we went on a little run.”

Just a little -- try a 17-2 run over the next six minutes. Johnson and Teague fueled the rally even as Duke missed a dozen consecutive shots. Down the stretch, the Blue Devils were 4-of-22 from the floor, with three of their baskets coming on drives by freshman guard Nolan Smith, rounding back into shape after hyperextending his knee at Maryland three weeks ago.

The Devils made 28.6 percent of their shots in the second half and were 3-20 on 3-pointers. All five starters fouled out, a telling measure of Duke’s discomfort. Prior to facing Wake, Krzyzewski’s squad had incurred only six disqualifications all season.

“I think our kids fought,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve won, and we’ve been fortunate. We have to play like we haven’t done anything, and tonight we played like we’ve already done something and the team that had to win, won. We have to always play like we have to win. That’s the sign of a champion, is being able to do that even when you’re already so-called in the tournament and all that kind of baloney.

“That’s part of learning. We have some young guys who haven’t been champions before. They’re trying to learn how to do that. Sometimes the best lessons are ones that are taught in defeat, so hopefully we’ll learn that lesson.”

And sometimes the best lessons are taught by life’s travails, which appears to be the case at Wake Forest.