By R.L. Bynum
DURHAM — Giving up height at every position, a daunting matchup for North Carolina turned into a nightmare, and the Tar Heels didn’t put up much of a fight until it was too late against No. 2 Duke.
The talented Blue Devils took control early and rolled to an 87–70 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night. UNC made the final score closer with an 18–2 run but lost for the fourth time in five games as an NCAA berth starts to look out of reach.
Sloppiness cost UNC (13–10, 6–5 ACC), with 14 turnovers that turned into 19 Duke points, more than the final margin. UNC coach Hubert Davis said that the turnovers are what got his team into a big hole early.
“Our unforced turnovers are something we’ve had a problem with,” Davis said. “We’ve talked at great length how important it is to take care of the ball in two ways, one, obviously unforced turnovers and shot selection and our live ball turnovers are turning into pick six plays for the opponents.”
It looked like Carolina might suffer the worst loss in the rivalry’s history before the Tar Heels started to play with energy in the final minutes. It nearly cut a 32-point deficit in half by going without a turnover for the last 10½ minutes.
Carolina shot 64.3% in the second half, went on an 18–2 run and held Duke without a field goal for 8 minutes and 16 seconds. Freshman Drake Powell had 10 of his 12 points during that run, sharing team scoring honors with RJ Davis.
“I thought we did some good things on both ends of the floor in the second half that could move us positively forward,” Coach Davis said, “and that’s something that I communicated to the team throughout the second half and after the game in the locker room.”
Duke saw Carolina struggle to run its offense when Pittsburgh switched on everything in the second half of Tuesday’s UNC loss and took advantage of that. Add the element of the Blue Devils being taller, longer and better defenders, and it was a nightmare when the Tar Heels tried to run their offensive sets.
“The defense was great,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “They missed some shots, but I thought the talk and the switching was terrific.”
That defensive success for Duke gradually changed in the second half.
“We created gaps to be able to get into the lane,” Coach Davis said. “We played off of two feet. We had tremendous spacing, ball and player movement. That combination of ball and player movement was not consistent in the first half.”
The movement that had been absent in the last two halves (including the second half at Pittsburgh) finally led to some offensive success.
“It’s very difficult to score because of their length,” he said. “It’s real from one to five, so the gaps are small, and you have to move to make them bigger. We were able to do that in the second half but unfortunately we were just behind too much.”
With freshman sensation Cooper Flagg (21 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks and 3 steals) and Kon Knueppel (22 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals) pouring on the offense, Duke put the game out of reach by halftime, making 5 of 11 3-point attempts to that point.
“It’s a hard matchup with Cooper, so we try to put two on the ball, which puts us in rotations, and he’s such a gifted passer,” Coach Davis said. “And his ability to pass because of his length — our double teams are coming with 6–4, 6–5 [tall players], and his ability to see over and find teammates for open 3s that put us in closeouts.”
Carolina succeeded defensively in the second half when it stopped double-teaming Flagg and played some zone, although the Blue Devils still scored five 3s in the second half.
Coach Davis said that the one-week break before the next game would be a good time for his team to come together for the home stretch of the regular season.
“The thing that I have been proud of this team is its fight,” Coach Davis said. “It stays connected. It stays together and competitively continues to move forward.”
Duke jumped out to a 17-point lead in the first seven minutes with a 21–4 run in which the Blue Devils converted four turnovers into seven points.
“I thought that’s what started off the game for us – our defensive intensity,” Flagg said. “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. I think being poised and under control [was key].”
Coach Davis called timeout to try to slow Duke with 15:42 left in the first half, but the Blue Devils scored seven in a row after that to give them 15 consecutive points. UNC outscored Duke 45–40 in the second half.
Carolina needed a big perimeter shooting game, but Elliot Cadeau took nearly 10 minutes to score UNC’s first 3-pointer. That accounted for the Tar Heels’ only points during a 15–3 Duke run to balloon the lead to 27, a run RJ Davis stopped with his first points on a drive with 4:54 left in the first half.
Those points started a 12–5 UNC run — including 3s from Davis and Jae’Lynn Withers — to cut the lead to 20. A driving Flagg jumper gave Duke a 47–25 halftime lead. It took UNC nearly 11½ second-half minutes to equal the Blue Devils’ first-half total.
Carolina found more of an offensive flow after halftime, but it took nearly 5½ minutes for the Tar Heels to get a defensive stop in the second half.
That 18–2 run — with eight Powell points — cut the lead to 16 points with 3:31 left.
NOTES — Carolina gets a week off before playing two games in three days, hosting Pittsburgh at 4 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) and visiting Clemson at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10 (ESPN). The Panthers (14–7, 5–5), who beat UNC 73–65 on Tuesday, lost at Wake Forest 76–74 on Saturday. The Tigers (18–4, 10–1) won 68–58 at N.C. State on Saturday. … The 17-point margin of victory is the largest Duke win in the rivalry at Cameron Indoor Stadium since Scheyer’s 82–50 senior night victory in 2010. … Athletic trainer Doug Halverson was tending to Trimble’s left leg during a second-half time out, and Trimble was favoring his left foot when he returned to the game. … UNC wore early 1980s Jordan-era blue throwback uniforms for a third time, after wearing them for the win over UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic and the victory at N.C. State. … Carolina players, particularly Cadeau, took verbal jabs from Duke students while taking warmups before the game. … UNC suffered its two lowest-scoring halves consecutively, with 21 points in the second half at Pitt and 25 in the first half at Duke. … The largest win margin in the history of the UNC-Duke rivalry came with UNC’s 37-point win in 1965, and Duke’s biggest win was by 35 points in 2010. … Duke snapped a two-game losing streak against UNC, but the Tar Heels lead the series 145–118. The Blue Devils have a 57–52 edge in Durham. … RJ Davis has 2,526 career points, passing Virginia’s Bryant Stith (1989–92) for sixth on the all-time ACC scoring list. … Cade Tyson, who played nearly 9½ minutes after not playing at Pitt and combining for eight minutes in the previous three games, was a team-high +12. … Cadeau finished with three assists and five turnovers, the first time he’s had more Doturnovers than assists since doing it against California. … Since beating UCLA 76–74 on Dec. 21, UNC has only one win against a team with a winning record: the Jan. 7 82-67 victory over 17–5 SMU.
No. 2 Duke 87, UNC 70
| Team | League | Overall | NET* |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 5 Duke | 7–0 | 18–1 | 3 |
| No. 18 Clemson | 7–1 | 17–4 | 31 |
| No. 14 Virginia | 5–2 | 16–3 | 14 |
| Miami | 5–2 | 16–4 | 37 |
| N.C. State | 5–2 | 14–6 | 27 |
| No. 22 North Carolina | 4–3 | 16–4 | 23 |
| SMU | 4–3 | 15–5 | 33 |
| No. 23 Louisville | 4–3 | 14–5 | 17 |
| Virginia Tech | 4–4 | 15–6 | 51 |
| California | 3–4 | 15–5 | 54 |
| Stanford | 3–4 | 14–6 | 72 |
| Syracuse | 3–4 | 12–8 | 79 |
| Georgia Tech | 2–5 | 11–9 | 145 |
| Notre Dame | 2–5 | 11–9 | 83 |
| Wake Forest | 2–5 | 11–9 | 66 |
| Boston College | 2–5 | 9–11 | 157 |
| Florida State | 1–6 | 8–12 | 113 |
| Pittsburgh | 1–6 | 8–12 | 126 |
* — Through Saturday games
Saturday’s results
No. 22 North Carolina 85, No. 14 Virginia 80
No. 18 Clemson 77, Georgia Tech 63
N.C. State 71, Pittsburgh 72
No. 5 Duke 90, Wake Forest 69
Miami 85, Syracuse 76
No. 23 Louisville 85, Virginia Tech 71
SMU 83, Florida State 80
Notre Dame 68, Boston College 64
California 78, Stanford 66
Monday’s game
No. 23 Louisville at No. 5 Duke, 7 p.m., ESPN
Tuesday’s games
Wake Forest at Pittsburgh, 6 p.m., ACC Network
No. 14 Virginia at Notre Dame, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Syracuse at N.C. State, 7 p.m., ESPN U
Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech, 8 p.m., ACC Network
Wednesday’s games
California at Florida State, 7 p.m., ACC Network
Stanford at Miami, 9 p.m., ACC Network
Saturday, Jan. 31, games
No. 5 Duke at Virginia Tech, noon, ESPN
Pittsburgh at No. 18 Clemson, noon, ACC Network
No. 14 Virginia at Boston College, 1:30, The CW
No. 22 North Carolina at Georgia Tech, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at No. 23 Louisville, 2 p.m., ESPN
N.C. State at Wake Forest, 3:45, The CW
California at Miami, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Stanford at Florida State, 6 p.m., ACC Network
Notre Dame at Syracuse, 6 p.m., The CW
UNC statistics
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 13 BYU in SLC | Exhib. |
| 29 | Wednesday | W, 95–53 | vs. Winston-Salem St. | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 94–54 | vs. Central Arkansas | 1–0 |
| 7 | Friday | W, 87–74 | vs. No. 19 Kansas | 2–0 |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 89–74 | vs. Radford | 3–0 |
| 14 | Friday | W, 97–53 | vs. N.C. Central | 4–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 73–61 | vs. Navy | 5–0 |
| Fort Myers Tip-Off | ||||
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 85–70 | vs. St. Bonaventure | 6–0 |
| 27 | Thursday | L, 74–58 | vs. No. 10 Michigan State | 6–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 2 | Tuesday | W, 67–64 | at Kentucky | 7–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 81–61 | vs. Georgetown | 8–1 |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 80–62 | vs. USC Upstate | 9–1 |
| 16 | Tuesday | W, 77–58 | vs. ETSU | 10–1 |
| CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta | ||||
| 20 | Saturday | W, 71–70 | vs. Ohio State | 11–1 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 22 | Monday | W, 99–51 | vs. East Carolina | 12–1 |
| 30 | Tuesday | W, 79–66 | vs. Florida State | 13–1, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 3 | Saturday | L, 97–83 | at SMU | 13–2, 1–1 |
| 10 | Saturday | W, 87–84 | vs. Wake Forest | 14–2, 2–1 |
| 14 | Wednesday | L, 95–90 | at Stanford | 14–3, 2–2 |
| 17 | Saturday | L, 84–78 | at California | 14–4, 2–3 |
| 21 | Wednesday | W, 91–69 | vs. Notre Dame | 15–4, 3–3 |
| 24 | Saturday | W, 85–80 | at No. 14 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | at Georgia Tech | ACCN |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. Syracuse | ESPN |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 5 Duke | ESPN |
| 10 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at Miami | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 14 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Pittsburgh | ESPN |
| 17 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | at N.C. State | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 21 | Saturday | 1 p.m. | at Syracuse | ABC |
| 23 | Monday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 23 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 18 Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 5 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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