By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Carolina put up a fight few expected against No. 2 Duke and RJ Davis produced some senior day magic that made for a memorable first half.
The crowd was loud and crazy, and the anticipation was building. While that didn’t last, UNC showed with its competitiveness that the six-game win streak was no fluke and that the Tar Heels are a different team than before that streak, despite falling 82–69 on senior night Saturday at the Smith Center.
“I think we did a good job of just battling throughout the whole game,” Davis said, “and it just wasn’t enough in the second half. They got a lot of buckets. [We] let some guys open threes, and we just couldn’t convert when needed on the offensive end.”
Carolina (20–12, 13–7 ACC) likely hasn’t done enough to make the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels head to the ACC tournament for a 2:30 p.m. Wednesday second-round game at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center against the winner of Tuesday’s Notre Dame-Pittsburgh first-round game.
After scoring 15 first-half points, Davis only netted five in the second half as Duke erased a seven-point second-half deficit with a 20–5 run.
“Obviously hurt not winning the game in my last time playing on this floor,” Davis said. “A lot of thoughts going through my head right now.”
Davis felt he in a groove in the first half, when he was 5 of 8 with three 3-pointers and had the building rocking.
“It’s what you live for,” Davis said. “You prepare for these types of moments. It was something I envisioned in my head. And, you know, I just was able to come, just go out and display it.”
The game flipped when Davis, dealing with cramps, came out with UNC leading by four with 14:23 left. When he returned nearly three minutes later, Duke tied it and the Tar Heels never led again.
“He was giving a lot of effort out there, and I wanted to give him a break, and he needed one,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “During that stretch, I felt like offensively, [we] just couldn’t get to the basket. I felt like we took some quick jump shots and long shots led to long rebounds, and they were able to get out in transition. I thought that was a key stretch.”
“I thought our energy, our effort, was on point,” Coach Davis said. “I felt like defensively, our pressure, especially on the ball, either sped them up or created turnovers, and we forced them into 14 turnovers. Just wasn’t able to sustain that, midway through the second half, towards the end of the game.”
UNC forced Duke (28–3, 19–1) into 14 turnovers, the most since it had 16 against Wake Forest, but only five came in the second half.
Two features of the win streak that ended Saturday were rebounding dominance and balanced scoring. The much-taller Duke team won the boards 39–26, and Ven-Allen Lubin was the only other Tar Heel to score in double figures, scoring 11 points and a team-high six rebounds.
“I think that we showed a lot of toughness on both ends of the floor,” Lubin said. “We didn’t let their size intimidate us. We tried to get what we wanted. On the defensive end, we showed that we can be the tougher team, too.”
It was the 12th time this season that the Tar Heels had trailed by double-digits, falling to 2–10 in those games, but they didn’t let Duke put them away after the Blue Devils built a 15-point first-half lead.
Drake Powell (7 points, 2 rebounds) had a strong start with a steal, a 3-pointer and five points as UNC kept it close early. The Blue Devils led by eight after an 8–2 run, then went up by 15 on a 13–2 run as Duke made 6 of its first 8 3-point attempts, with a couple rattling in with kind bounces.
RJ Davis scored nine points during an 18–5 UNC run to cut the lead to one on his 3, then and a drive with 1:49 left.
Jae’Lyn Withers had two layups during the run, and drew a charge foul on Cooper Flagg with 3:18 left in the first half. It was the third foul for the sensational freshman, who only played nine first-half minutes.
Flagg never picked up another foul and finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds.
A Davis jumper with 41 seconds remaining in the first half cut Duke’s halftime lead at 43–42.
Davis scored five points in a 14–2 run over the first 4:16 of the second half to give UNC a seven-point lead on a Lubin layup, before the game turned with him on the bench.
Two Flagg free throws tied it after Davis returned. Duke took a six-point lead when it it had a 12–0 run, topped of by a Maliq Brown transition dunk.
UNC had a few defensive lapses and hit a cold shooting streak.
Suddenly, Davis’ perimeter shots weren’t falling, the offense got stagnant and Duke began to pull away. A 22–5 Duke run shoved the lead to 11 on a Sion James steal and layup. Brown was 2 of 9 from 3-point range entering the game, but his second 3 with 2:24 gave the Blue Devils an 11-point lead.
Kon Kneuppel led the Blue Devils with 17 points and three 3-pointers.
NOTES — UNC honored Pro Football Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers during a first-half timeout. … Carolina introduced Isaiah Denis, Derek Dixon and Caleb Wilson, incoming freshmen next season, during a second-half timeout. … Duke swept UNC for the first time since 2023, but the Blue Devils trail the all-time series 145–119, including 66–40 in Chapel Hill and 21–20 at the Smith Center. … RJ Davis’ 170th game broke the ACC and UNC all-time records previously held by Armando Bacot. With 1,163 points, Davis is the second leading scorer in Smith Center history (behind Tyler Hansbrough’s 1,321) and made the most 3-pointers (159). … Carolina’s 27 second-half points were its fewest in a half since scoring 25 in the first half at Duke on Feb. 1. … Carolina shot 39.1%, its lowest percentage since shooting 39% against Georgia Tech on Dec. 7.
No. 2 Duke 82, UNC 69
| Team | League | Overall | NET* |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 4 Duke | 9–0 | 20–1 | 2 |
| No. 20 Clemson | 8–1 | 18–4 | 31 |
| No. 18 Virginia | 7–2 | 18–3 | 18 |
| N.C. State | 7–2 | 16–6 | 26 |
| No. 14 North Carolina | 6–3 | 18–4 | 25 |
| Miami | 6–3 | 17–5 | 39 |
| No. 24 Louisville | 5–4 | 15–6 | 17 |
| Virginia Tech | 5–5 | 16–7 | 56 |
| SMU | 4–4 | 15–6 | 34 |
| California | 4–5 | 16–6 | 51 |
| Syracuse | 4–6 | 13–10 | 78 |
| Stanford | 3–6 | 14–8 | 77 |
| Florida State | 3–6 | 10–12 | 102 |
| Boston College | 2–6 | 9–12 | 152 |
| Georgia Tech | 2–7 | 11–11 | 143 |
| Notre Dame | 2–7 | 11–11 | 85 |
| Wake Forest | 2–7 | 11–11 | 70 |
| Pittsburgh | 2–7 | 9–13 | 114 |
* — Through Saturday games
Saturday’s games
No. 14 North Carolina 91, Georgia Tech 75
No. 4 Duke 72, Virginia Tech 58
N.C. State 96, Wake Forest 78
No. 20 Clemson 63, Pittsburgh 52
No. 18 Virginia 73, Boston College 66
No. 24 Louisville 88, SMU 74
California 86, Miami 81
Florida State 88, Stanford 80
Syracuse 86, Notre Dame 72
Monday’s game
No. 14 North Carolina 87, Syracuse 77
Tuesday’s games
Boston College at No. 4 Duke, 7 p.m., ACC Network
Pittsburgh at No. 18 Virginia, 9 p.m., ACC Network
N.C. State at SMU, 9 p.m, ESPN2
Wednesday’s games
Notre Dame at No. 24 Louisville, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Georgia Tech at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
No. 20 Clemson at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACC Network
Saturday’s games
Virginia Tech at N.C. State, noon, The CW
Syracuse at No. 18 Virginia, noon, ESPN
No. 24 Louisville at Wake Forest, noon, ACC Network
Miami at Boston College, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at Pittsburgh, 2 p.m., The CW
Florida State at Notre Dame, 4 p.m., The CW
No. 4 Duke at No. 14 North Carolina, 6:30, ESPN
No. 20 Clemson at California, 8 p.m., ACC Network
Georgia Tech at Stanford, 8 p.m., ESPNU
| Date | Month/day | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 24 | Friday | L, 78–76 | vs. No. 16 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. 11 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. 18 Virginia | 16–4, 4–3 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 91–75 | at Georgia Tech | 17–4, 5–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 87–77 | vs. Syracuse | 18–4, 6–3 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | vs. No. 4 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. 24 Louisville | ESPN |
| 28 | Saturday | 6:30 or 8:30 | vs. Virginia Tech | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 20 Clemson | ESPN or ESPN2 |
| 7 | Saturday | 6:30 | at No. 4 Duke | ESPN |
| 10–14 | Tues.-Sat. | ACC tournament | Spectrum Center, Charlotte |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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