By R.L. Bynum
CHARLOTTE — North Carolina showed the fight of an NCAA tournament team in rallying from a 24-point deficit to nearly upset No. 1 Duke.
Now comes the wait to see if the Tar Heels have done enough after a heartbreaking 74–71 loss to the Blue Devils in the ACC tournament semifinals at Spectrum Center on Friday.
“I can’t be more proud of a team than I am right now,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis, who has to hope that the selection committee looks past the team’s 1–12 record in Quad 1 games. “Just love these guys to death. I love their fight. I love their togetherness. I love how close they are.”
Even without star freshman Cooper Flagg and defensive ace Maliq Brown, the Blue Devils (30–3) scored the last 15 points of the first half and appeared to be rolling until the Tar Heels (22–13) stormed back with a 22–7 run to pull within one, only to come up short.
“I think we’ve seen in the past couple weeks that we are a tournament team,” said RJ Davis, who was held to eight points. “I think if you look at the trajectory of our whole season, the way we dealt with adversity, perseverance, and especially these last couple of weeks, we overcame all of that. You couldn’t ask for a better team than that.”
Seth Trimble’s two free throws with 32 seconds left cut Duke’s lead to one. Duke’s Tyrese Proctor missed the front end of a one-and-one with 21.7 seconds left. Ven-Allen Lubin then missed a potential tying free throw with 4.1 seconds left, and a lane violation by Jae’Lyn Withers nullified his successful second attempt.
“I kind of mistimed the shot,” Withers said. “Was trying to make sure I crashed hard to secure a rebound in case he did miss. Emotions that followed were a sense of disbelief.”
Lubin and others came to Withers’ defense.
“Those things happen. We’re not blaming him for that. It’s not his fault at all [that they lost],” Lubin said.
Trimble said UNC wouldn’t be in the position they were in without Withers.
“Trying to keep his head up,” Trimble said. “I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. God has a plan for everybody, and that was just his plan for us today.”
Kon Kneuppel, who led five Duke players scoring in double figures with 17 points, put Duke up by three with 2.8 seconds left.
UNC quickly got the ball to half court and called timeout with 2.9 seconds left. On a play that was supposed to create an RJ Davis 3-point attempt, Duke’s switching prevented that and Lubin — who had his third double-double of the tournament with 20 points and 10 rebounds — missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds that could have tied it.
“We had Seth take the ball out, and then they had their big man using his height and length guarding Seth, and they switched 1 through 5,” RJ Davis said. “It was obviously difficult for Seth to make the pass, set up for the over the top, and yeah, that was basically the play.”
Carolina (22–13) rode perimeter dominance during its late-season surge, shooting 44.6% from outside the arc in the previous nine games, but shot a season-low 17.6% from outside the arc. Elliot Cadeau (15 points, five assists, 1 turnover) made all three of his attempts, but the rest of the team went 0 of 14.
Coach Davis said his team didn’t compete well enough in their one-on-one matchups in the first half.
“I felt like in the first half, they had the better of us, whether it was on the perimeter, in the post,” said Davis, whose team won points in the paint against a taller Duke team 44–40.
“In the second half I felt like we were more physical. Our competitive fight — we were defending without fouling, we were getting loose balls, we were getting rebounds, we were contesting shots, we were making second and third efforts,” he said. “That allowed us to get stops, it allowed us to get out in transition, and that was the number one determining factor of us being able to come back.”
After falling behind by 27 in the first meeting in Durham and never responding, UNC took the fight to Duke for the second time in six days. The Tar Heels rallied within seven on Saturday in Chapel Hill and pulled it down to one on Friday.
“We just believed in ourselves, that we can get stops and we can execute on the offensive end,” Lubin said. “Just, chipping the game away little by little.”
Duke will play in the championship game at 8:30 Saturday (ESPN) against No. 2-seed and 13th-ranked Louisville (27–6), which beat No. 3-seed and 10th-ranked Clemson 76–73 in the other semifinal.
When UNC’s offense clicked, it was with ball movement, hard cuts and nice passes. But there wasn’t enough of that in the first half, when some officiating frustrated the Tar Heels.
A dead-ball technical foul was called on Jalen Washington, but nothing was called when he took an elbow to the face. That exchange happened during a 6–0 Duke run to take a five-point lead. A 16–6 Blue Devils run shoved the lead to 11 after Kneuppel’s third catch-and-shoot 3-pointer with 6:51 left.
“We got really stagnant the first half on the offensive end, and it was just allowing Duke to get easy stops and getting out in transition,” Trimble said.
Shortly after Cadeau scored UNC’s first 3-pointer after the Heels missed their first eight attempts — the Tar Heels’ final first-half points — he picked up his third foul with 3:56 left in the first half. Duke then scored the last 15 points of the first half to seize a 45–24 halftime lead.
“Our overall competitive spirit was there, and everyone contributed,” RJ Davis said. “We had four guys in double figures and a lot of guys made a lot of plays that allowed us to get back into the game. It was a team effort. That’s all you can ask for when you’re trying to claw back into the game.”
Cadeau had five points during a 15–4 UNC run that cut the Duke lead to 12 on Trimble’s transition three-point play with 11:35 left. Two Khaman Maluach dunks started a 9–3 Duke run to push the lead to 18.
But UNC didn’t back down, chopping Duke’s lead to three on a 22–7 UNC run, with five points from Trimble and Lubin and four from Drake Powell, who missed a potential tying 3-point attempt with 1:03 left.
NOTES — UNC’s previous worst 3-point shooting games were 17.9% in losses to Florida and Alabama. UNC is 2-9 when shooting less than 31% from outside the arc. … This was UNC’s eighth game against a team currently in the AP Top 25. … This was the first ACC tournament meeting since Duke’s semifinal win in Charlotte in 2019. … Freshman Ian Jackson is observing Ramadan, which isn’t over until March 29. Under that observance, he doesn’t eat any food or drink any beverage from dawn to sunset, the latter after Friday’s game started. N.C. State’s Mohamed Diarra did that during the Wolfpack’s run through the ACC and NCAA tournaments last season. … UNC is 110–53 in the ACC tournament, including 36–19 in the semifinals and 24–9 in Charlotte. … UNC leads the series with Duke 145–110 but the Blue Devils have a 15–9 edge in ACC tournament play. … Duke swept three games this season, the first time either team has done that since 2001–02. … It was the first loss in eight games when starting Cadeau, Davis, Drake Powell, Withers and Lubin.
No. 1 Duke 74, No. 5 UNC 71
ACC tournament
Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2 OTs
No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s second round
No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
No. 5 North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 56
No. 7 Stanford 78, California 73
No. 6 SMU 73, Syracuse 53
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 (and No. 1-ranked) Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
No. 2 (and No. 13-ranked) Louisville 75, Stanford 73
No. 3 (and No. 10-ranked) Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinals
Duke 72, North Carolina 71
Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Saturday’s championship (ESPN)
Duke (30–3) vs. Louisville (27–6), 8:30
| Date | Month/day | Scores/ times | Opponent/event (current ranks) | Record /TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 15 | Tuesday | W, 84–76 | at No. 16 Memphis | Exhibition |
| 27 | Sunday | W, 127–63 | vs. Johnson C. Smith | Exhibition |
| November | ||||
| 4 | Monday | W, 90–76 | vs. Elon | 1–0 |
| 8 | Friday | L, 92–89 | at Kansas | 1–1 |
| 15 | Friday | W, 107–55 | vs. American | 2–1 |
| 22 | Friday | W, 85–69 | at Hawai’i | 3–1 |
| Maui Invitational | ||||
| 25 | Monday | W, 92–90 | Dayton | 4–1 |
| 26 | Tuesday | L, 85–72 | No. 3 Auburn | 4–2 |
| 27 | Wednesday | L, 94–91, OT | No. 7 Michigan State | 4–3 |
| December | ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge | |||
| 4 | Wednesday | L, 94–79 | vs. No. 5 Alabama | 4–4 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 7 | Saturday | W, 68–65 | vs. Georgia Tech | 5–4, 1–0 ACC |
| 14 | Saturday | W, 93–67 | vs. LaSalle | 6–4 |
| Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte | ||||
| 17 | Tuesday | L, 90–84 | No. 4 Florida | 6–5 |
| CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden | ||||
| 21 | Saturday | W, 76–74 | UCLA | 7–5 |
| ————————— | ||||
| 29 | Sunday | W, 97–81 | vs. Campbell | 8–5 |
| January | ||||
| 1 | Wednesday | L, 83–70 | at No. 13 Louisville | 8–6, 1–1 |
| 4 | Saturday | W, 74–73 | at Notre Dame | 9–6, 2–1 |
| 7 | Tuesday | W, 82–67 | vs. SMU | 10–6, 3–1 |
| 11 | Saturday | W, 63–61 | at N.C. State | 11–6, 4–1 |
| 15 | Wednesday | W, 79–53 | vs. California | 12–6, 5–1 |
| 18 | Saturday | L, 72–71 | vs. Stanford | 12–7, 5–2 |
| 21 | Tuesday | L, 67–66 | at Wake Forest | 12–8, 5–3 |
| 25 | Saturday | W, 102–96, OT | vs. Boston College | 13–8, 6–3 |
| 28 | Tuesday | L, 73–65 | at Pittsburgh | 13–9, 6–4 |
| February | ||||
| 1 | Saturday | L, 87–70 | at No. 1 Duke | 13–10, 6–5 |
| 8 | Saturday | W, 67–66 | vs. Pittsburgh | 14–10, 7–5 |
| 10 | Monday | L, 85–65 | at No. 10 Clemson | 14–11, 7–6 |
| 15 | Saturday | W, 88–82 | at Syracuse | 15–11, 8–6 |
| 19 | Wednesday | W, 97–73 | vs. N.C. State | 16–11, 9–6 |
| 22 | Saturday | W, 81–66 | vs. Virginia | 17–11, 10–6 |
| 24 | Monday | W, 96–85 | at Florida State | 18–11, 11–6 |
| March | ||||
| 1 | Saturday | W, 92–73 | vs. Miami | 19–11, 12–6 |
| 4 | Tuesday | W, 91–59 | at Virginia Tech | 20–11, 13–6 |
| 8 | Saturday | L, 82–69 | vs. No. 1 Duke | 20–12, 13–7 |
| ACC tournament Spectrum Center, Charlotte | ||||
| 12 | Wednesday | W, 76–56 | 2nd-round: vs. Notre Dame | 21–12 |
| 13 | Thursday | W, 68–59 | Quarterfinal: vs. Wake Forest | 22–12 |
| 14 | Friday | L, 72–71 | Semifinal: vs. No. 1 Duke | 22–13 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 18–19 | Tues.-Wed. | First Four Dayton, Ohio | truTV | |
| 20–21 | Thurs.-Fri | First round | ||
| 22–23 | Sat.-Sun | Second round | ||
| 27–28 | Thurs.-Fri | Sweet 16 | ||
| 29–30 | Sat.-Sun | Elite Eight | ||
| 5, 7 | Sat., Mon. | Final Four San Antonio |
First- and second-round sites: Raleigh; Lexington, Ky.; Providence, RI; Seattle; Wichita, Kansas; Cleveland; Denver; and Milwaukee. Regional sites: East in Newark, N.J., West in San Francisco, South in Atlanta and Midwest in Indianapolis.
Photos by Smith Hardy
tarheeltribune.com 