At some point during most Duke-Carolina games, observers will exclaim that the rivalry “always delivers.”
There was certainly a delivery on Saturday night, but for most of the evening, Duke was the only team bringing it. The Blue Devils led by as many as 32 points and cruised to an 87-70 win over the reeling Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
UNC had two turnovers on its first four possessions and three in the first seven as Duke jumped out to a quick lead. The Blue Devils never trailed and used two separate first-half runs of 11-0 and 16-0 to take a 22-point halftime lead—the most lopsided Tar Heel half against Duke since 2010. RJ Davis missed his first four shots and didn’t score until 4:54 before halftime, with Duke holding a 40-15 lead.
“I think the nature of this game, it’s exciting, right?” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. “There’s anticipation, there’s going to be a great crowd, so you can feel happy, but really the team that has an edge has won this game. That’s something we kept talking about: our edge, our focus, and these guys had it. That was really what it was about. Not just starting that way, but continuing to compete the whole way, having an edge.”
UNC had nine first-half turnovers and 14 for the game, leading to 19 Duke points.
“I thought that’s what started off the game for us – our defensive intensity,” said Cooper Flagg, who had 21 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals, all but the points total leading the team. “We were getting into the passing lanes and that turned into easy offense, so I thought that really got us going tonight. The defense turned into some early, easy offense for us “
Graduate transfer Maliq Brown returned to the floor after missing the last four games with injury. A key to Duke’s aggressive, switching defense all year, he made an immediate impact, stealing the first pass he saw and finishing with 3 rebounds, 2 steals and a presence Scheyer said doesn’t show up in the box score.
“I thought the talk and the switching was terrific,” Scheyer said. “It’s a game that was calling for Maliq Brown. It really was. He comes in and on the first play, he comes up with the ball and we get something from it.”
Duke also got a team-high 22 points from Kon Knueppel, who scored the first six points of the second half as the Tar Heels dropped off of him to try to double team Flagg. Tyrese Proctor added 17 as Duke hit 10-of-20 from three.
The win was Duke’s 15th in a row, improving the Blue Devils to 11-0 in the ACC and 13-0 at home. Duke now faces a trip to Syracuse on Wednesday, followed by a game at second-place Clemson next weekend.
The Tar Heels, meanwhile, started the game on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble and didn’t do much to make a case that they should be in the field. UNC lost its second straight and fourth in five games, with only a comeback overtime home win over 2-8 Boston College breaking up the skid.
UNC next has Pitt, who beat the Tar Heels earlier this week, followed by games at Clemson and Syracuse and a home bout with rival NC State in a brutal stretch of the February schedule.
“There’s frustration,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “But I’ve told the guys this, and I specifically told them tonight, the only thing that you have control over in anything is how you react and how you respond. I told them this is a great lesson in life. There are going to be speed bumps and traffic and wind and rain. How do you react? How do you respond, when it’s a sunny day and when it’s a windy day?”
Davis focused on UNC’s second-half run. After Duke led 77-45 at the nine-minute mark, Carolina went on an 18-2 run to avoid a rivalry record-setting defeat and cut the Blue Devil lead in half. The Tar Heels outscored Duke by five in the second half as Duke lost that edge Scheyer credited for the team’s big lead.
“I was really proud of our fight and our perseverance in the second half,” Davis said. “I thought we did some good things on both ends of the floor in the second half that can move us positively forward, and that’s something that I communicated to the team throughout the second half and after the game in the locker room.”
It’s a small building block, but one the Tar Heels will need as they try to salvage the season.
