And how happy he made himself. Duke improves to 19-5 and 7-4 in conference with the win, and have a quick turnaround before their next game.
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“Yeah, I’m feeling very comfortable”, he said.
As a sophomore last season, the up-and-coming swingman appeared in a single-season career-high 40 games for the Tar Heels. While the three-game winning streak showed signs of life for Duke, it’s beating a top-10 North Carolina team – one that played well, even with Isaiah Hicks out because of an injury – that restores confidence that the Blue Devils are still capable of being the national championship contender everyone expected them to be. “No excuses, that’s just the way it is”. But this year has mostly been one debacle after another for Allen, with the tripping incidents and the painful toe injury early in the season that kept him from practicing with the team for a couple weeks. “I know (we) had a lot of fun, our whole team did”. Which hasn’t been easy.
“When Coach tells you to shoot the ball”, Allen said, “you shoot the ball”.
The sanctimonious wieners of Duke took down North Carolina at home tonight and superstar guards Luke Kennard and Grayson Allen were right at the heart of it.
Luke Kennard helped Duke by scoring 20 points with four rebounds and three assists. Out of the blue, Duke was suddenly controlling the game. The Blue Devils made 6 of 8 free throws the rest of the way.
Welcome to the biggest rivalry game of your life, freshman. “The last few ballgames he’s played so darned well”.
Duke’s capitalization down the stretch and UNC’s struggles at the line were the story of the game.
Despite all the problems presented during the night, the Tar Heels still found themselves needing just one defensive stop for a chance to tie the game up in the final 60 seconds. “That’s how I grew up playing, just loving to compete”.
The Tar Heels then have matchups against No. 12 Virginia and No. 4 Louisville, so beating the Wolfpack will be important with regard to the ACC title race.
Duke-UNC seems to live up to the hype every year, doesn’t it? While UNC had seemingly begun to turn things around, it was too little too late for the Tar Heels as Hughes brought the lead back up to 15 with a dagger from 3-point range late in the fourth.
At one point in the second half, Duke built a 8 point lead.
“For us, that’s how coach wants us to play”, Allen said. Now we’ll see where they go from here. Paris Kea also had a nice game for the Tar Heels as she scored 22 points and added six rebounds and four steals.
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Headlines across the country have been screaming Grayson Allen’s name for months.
