Another Duke-UNC classic in the books with the Tar Heels winning on a last-second three by Seth Trimble, 71-68.
The Blue Devils started out brilliantly, despite UNC nearly shutting down Cameron Boozer well into the first half.
The Tar Heels were overly reliant on Trimble and freshman Caleb Wilson, who had a sensational first half. But Duke was shooting better overall and ran out to an early 20-10 lead, which is basically the pattern of Duke-UNC games: one team, usually the the visitors, runs out to an early lead, and then
the other one catches up when things settle down.
And that happened here but Duke rebuilt the lead even as their fatal flaw developed. What was that?
Foul trouble.
All three bigs picked up early foul trouble and Pat Ngongba got two early and spent a lot of the game on the bench.
Wilson had 17 first half points, which was good because the rest of the team was not doing anything offensively in the first half. Other than Wilson and Trimble, UNC shot 2-22 before halftime.
In the second half, Duke continued to play well, but Ngongba picked up his fourth foul and then his fifth, and that made stopping UNC much more difficult, particularly inside. Duke had held Henri Veesaar to 0 points in the first half but in the second, he managed 13, largely because Brown couldn’t risk burning a foul.
In the first half, Duke punked UNC in the lane; in the second, UNC substantially reversed that. Duke couldn’t stop UNC’s penetration. And while Wilson cooled off, scoring just 6 after halftime.
The Tar Heels continued to chip away at Duke’s lead and what we saw in the first half reversed: no one else other than Boozer was reliable down the stretch.
And when it was Boozer pulling the freight, it was a much more difficult climb. You can’t say it was a foregone conclusion after Ngongba fouled out and Brown had four, but it was pretty close to it.
By the time UNC caught up, Duke’s only option was for Boozer. He drove as he has done so often and got a shot off, but missed.
And then of course, Trimble got his moment, what will become his legendary shot in the rivalry.
For UNC, it’s validation perhaps. For Hubert Davis, it gets the fans off his back for at least a bit. As for Duke?
Well, the Blue Devils had some adversity in this one, to be sure, and they nearly overcame it. You can imagine that a player like Deron Rippey or Bryson Howard might make a difference and might have given Boozer a second option.
We’ll never know.
What we do know is Duke is now 20-2 and the losses are by a combined 4 points. We can live with that. Let’s see what lessons Jon Scheyer draws from this game and how they apply them.
Notes – Brown’s late steal was one of the great hustle plays of recent memory…Sarr was brilliant in the first half…a lot of the game goes through Boozer’s hands but still, four turnovers is a lot and some were critical…Evans had a good game in many respects but shot just 1-4 from deep…Duke only got 6 three throw attempts…
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