The distance between the two schools is short, but now the Tar Heels return to Chapel Hill with a share of the ACC regular season title and the number one seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.
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(AP Photo/Gerry Broome). North Carolina’s Marcus Paige reacts during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Duke in Durham, N.C., Saturday, March 5, 2016. This senior trio has gone 1-2 against Duke in away games in Durham, North Carolina in the past three seasons.
North Carolina never trailed and rode its inside game, building a 64-29 rebounding advantage while outscoring Duke 42-20 in the paint. “We got back to what we needed to do”.
“We were trying to go inside every minute of the game”, he said. “We just had to withstand it and be able to keep playing”.
And kudos to Duke for forcing them into the position of having to make those pressure foul shots.
Bibbs hit 7 of 10 from the floor, including five 3-pointers to lift the Hokies (18-13, 10-8 ACC) to their fifth straight win.
“That’s what we do – 3s and free throws are kind of how we have to score”, coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
“We heard about the Virginia Tech-Miami game before the game”, Williams said.
Of all people to lock down the 76-72 win, it was Paige, suffering through a disappointing senior season and another hard shooting night, making all four of his free throws in the final 9 seconds.
Paige hit two free throws with 8.8 seconds left.
“The second trip to the line, I knew it was over”, Paige said. “We’ve got to do what we have to do, and it’s won 22 games, it’s made us a very good and tough team”. “We’ve been through a lot, so it feels really good”. When you trim those postseason clashes (neutral sites) from the record, and just look at meetings inside Cameron and the Smith Center, Tobacco Road pups of +6 or bigger are 13-4 ATS – cashing in at an impressive 76 percent rate. Yet UNC responded with four straight points to get the lead back then survived with the Blue Devils lurking just one possession out over the next nearly four minutes of game time.
After entering halftime with a 40-32 lead, UNC missed its first 11 shots of the second half. The Tar Heels came into the season dreaming of an ACC championship and a national championship, and Williams, who won it all with more complete and dominant UNC teams in 2005 and ’09, believes that this team still has a chance to win his third. With the loss, Duke will have to win four games to capture the ACC title next week, not the best prescription for a thin team.
In case you’ve been off planet, Duke officially announced this afternoon that Amile Jefferson was out for the season. Despite trailing by 10 points early in the second half, Duke kept coming at UNC on Senior Night, eventually tying the game at 49-49 on a Grayson Allen 3-pointer that set Cameron on fire with 11:56 to play. Carolina’s offensive-rebounding percentage was an otherworldly 56.2% and Duke’s was a measly 17.8%. Former stars Hansbrough and Marvin Williams, both now with the Charlotte Hornets, watched from behind the UNC bench.
At the start of the game, Duke’s Grayson Allen penetrated Carolina’s defense for a few “and-one” layups.
Out of a timeout with 26.7 seconds to play, freshman midfielder Austin French had the biggest point of his young career, feeding from behind the cage to Miller, who took a step and buried his strike with 9.8 seconds to go, and Denver tied things up at 12.
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The second-ranked Fighting Irish (28-1) have won this event every year they’ve played in it, and they’re once again the team to beat when the tournament starts today.
