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. 3 Duke	0–0	11–0	2
California	0–0	10–1	63
No. 12 North Carolina	0–0	10–1	15
No. 23 Virginia	0–0	9–1	21
Miami	0–0	10–2	33
Virginia Tech	0–0	10–2	58
No. 11 Louisville	0–0	9–2	17
SMU	0–0	9–2	43
Stanford	0–0	8–2	98
Clemson	0–0	9–3	32
Notre Dame	0–0	9–3	65
Wake Forest	0–0	9–3	59
N.C. State	0–0	8–4	34
Georgia Tech	0–0	7–4	189
Syracuse	0–0	7–4	96
Pittsburgh	0–0	6–6	154
Boston College	0–0	5–6	177
Florida State	0–0	5–6	148

* — Through Wednesday games
Tuesday’s results
No. 12 North Carolina 77, East Tennessee State 58
No. 3 Duke 97, Lipscomb 73
No. 20 Tennessee 83, No. 11 Louisville 62
Dayton 97, Florida State 69
Clemson 68, South Carolina 61
Miami 98, Florida International 81
Georgia Tech 87, Marist 76
Wednesday’s results
N.C. State 108, Texas Southern 72
Pittsburgh 103, Binghamton 6
Syracuse 76, Mercyhurst 62
Wake Forest 71, Longwood 68
UT Arlington at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACCN Extra
Friday’s games
Mississippi Valley State at Florida State, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Morgan State at California, 10 p.m., ACCN Extra
Saturday’s games
Montana at No. 11 Louisville, noon, ACCN Extra
Lafayette at Georgia Tech, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Elon at Virginia Tech, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Ohio State vs. No. 12 North Carolina at CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta, 3 p.m., CBS
Northeastern at Syracuse, 4 p.m., ACCN Extra
Maryland at No. 23 Virginia, 6 p.m., ESPN
No. 3 Duke at No. 16 Texas Tech, 8 p.m., ESPN
Stanford at Colorado, 8 p.m., ESPNU
Sunday’s games
Penn State vs. Pittsburgh in Hershey, Pa., noon, Big Ten Network
Ole Miss vs. N.C. State in Greensboro, 1 p.m., ESPN
No. 13 Vanderbilt at Wake Forest, 1 p.m., The CW
Purdue Ft. Wayne at Notre Dame, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Central Arkansas at SMU, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Cincinnati vs. Clemson in Greenville, S.C., 3 p.m., ESPN
North Florida at Miami, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Columbia at California, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Monday’s games
American at Virginia, 6 p.m., ACCN Extra
Jacksonville at Florida State, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Stonehill at Syracuse, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Fairleigh Dickinson at Boston College, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
East Carolina at No. 12 North Carolina, 8 p.m., ACC Network

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 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. 17 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. 9 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. East Tennessee State	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 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. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte