With an in-game injury to a starter and foul trouble staring at the No. 20 Blue Devils, they didn’t blink in rallying for a 74-73 victory against No. 5 North Carolina at the Smith Center. Paige scored seven on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0 for 6 from 3-point range with three turnovers. Allen leads the team in both points per game and assists per game (3.7), an extremely rare feat. No. 4 North Carolina is a 6.5-point home favorite hosting No. 19 Duke Wednesday night, having gone just 6-10 ATS in its last 16 home stands against the Blue Devils. On the season, Ingram is averaging 17.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
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North Carolina’s Brice Johnson (11) slaps hands with Kennedy Meeks (3) following Johnson’s basket against Pittsburgh during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016. Their loss throws the ACC race into chaos, with Miami coming to Chapel Hill on Saturday to face a North Carolina team that now looks all too vulnerable.
Can Duke knock down enough threes? .
North Carolina had a chance to send a message on Wednesday by crushing the spirit of a Duke team that at times seemed undermanned and overmatched. He had a double-double by halftime (18 points, 11 rebounds) and owned the glass, making life miserable for Duke’s thin interior. Here are three reasons why UNC will beat Duke tonight, and have a pretty easy time doing it. Brandon Ingram was sensational down the stretch pumping in 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
Luke Kennard, who made a three-pointer with about two and a half minutes to play to give Duke its first lead of the half, saw his team do exactly what he would’ve expected it to do in the another-man-down situation, if you asked him to predict the scenario.
The two teams are used to gritty games against each other and at the half, they went into the tunnel with a 46-42 lead.
Back in the national rankings after a two-week absence, Duke looks like its heating up again.
“We were going possession for possession, just going back and forth”, Johnson said, “and then all of a sudden (Duke) made a decision to clamp down and didn’t want us to score”. Plumlee returned with 10:51 left and avoided a fifth foul, thanks in part to North Carolina’s hesitancy to get Johnson the ball in scoring position. He’s spent a lot of time in the building as a recruit, but never as a hated opponent.
But the final, and possibly most head-scratching thing Williams did, was fail to call a timeout when Brice Johnson grabbed a rebound with 24 seconds left in the game. A 15-6 squad off to its worst start (4-4) in ACC play in two decades. Still, Notre Dame probably has to win all five of its remaining games to have a shot at finishing first – and even if it does win all five it’d likely still need some help. While you can try and feed Johnson every time, the lack of a perimeter threat makes feeding the post a tougher task.
One has to wonder how many rounds Duke has left in them while playing short-handed.
The sting of that decision has only increased as Ingram has emerged as one of the nation’s top freshmen and maybe the only prospect with a sliver of hope of unseating Ben Simmons as the top pick in this year’s draft. “Wanting to know if their rivals down Tobacco Road were on their level, DSB did some investigative journalism, disguising themselves as Carolina students to see which UNC fans could see through the prank…” “But I would’ve said we’d f(ight) till the end and we would’ve battled hard and played with heart”.
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Wednesday marks the rekindling of one of the best rivalries in all of sports.
