DUKE HANGS ON BY A THREAD AGAINST NORTH CAROLINA, 74-71

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A comeback for the ages—until it wasn’t. 

On Friday night, No. 1 seed Duke held on to defeat No. 5 seed North Carolina, 74-71, after leading by as many as 24. 

“I'm not sure I'm going to be able to give you the best rundown of that game,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said. “It's still a blur to me. … But you have to make enough winning plays, and tonight we made one more winning play than they did to get the win. 

“But a ton of respect for [Carolina]. We knew this would be a heck of a game, and couldn't be more proud of our team, but these two guys sitting next to me with what they did.” 

Without the best player in the country, Cooper Flagg, who was out due to an ankle injury suffered Thursday, the Blue Devils came out hot in dominating fashion. 

With 12:15 to play in the first half, Duke held a 14-9 lead over the Tar Heels. 

A couple controversial calls had caused North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis to get hot on the sideline. The tensions were high. Spectrum Center was rocking. 

Nearing the end of the first half, the Blue Devils began to rule the roost. 

With 5:03 remaining, Duke led 34-20. The Devils then went on an 11-0 run to make it 45-24 at halftime. 

It truly felt like the Blue Devils “wanted it more.” 

“I think it was our defense,” Duke guard Tyrese Proctor said. “We were on every 50/50 ball. We were diving on the floor first, and that triggered our offense. Offense is contagious if we're playing our defense, and that's what happened.” 

At the break, Duke was shooting 50% to Carolina’s 36%, and were out-rebounding the Heels 23-14. 

Kon Kneuppel led the Blue Devils with 12 points, hitting all three of his attempts from beyond the arc. During the stretch, Kneuppel dove on a loose ball that ignited all the royal blue in the stands. 

“We were just holding them to one shot, getting the rebound, and we were living in their paint,” Kneuppel said. “And that's something we want to do as a team all the time, and we did that very well in that run.” 

The game didn’t flip right out of the break. 

Duke continued to play well offensively, eventually getting out to that 24-point lead as 7’1” Khaman Maluach knocked down a triple—just his third of the year. 

With a blowout on the horizon, the Tar Heels quickly executed a 9-0 run on the back of guard Elliot Cadeau, who hit the first three of the game for Carolina and then knocked down a pair of free throws during the stretch. 

The Heels had gotten it back to a manageable 15-point deficit with 13:54 remaining. 

“I felt like in the first half they had the better of us, whether it was on the perimeter, [or] in the post,” North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis said. 

“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.” 

Carolina players almost took turns making a slew of plays to get the Heels back in it. 

After Cadeau, Ven-Allen Lubin was up next. The junior forward who transferred from Vanderbilt got a couple of layups to fall along with a few from the charity stripe. 

Then Seth Trimble got involved—the guard was aggressive in transition, taking on multiple defenders to get to the rack. He had two and-one’s in the second half on fastbreaks. 

All of the sudden, Duke’s lead was cut to 70-66 with 3:41 remaining. 

“Just too many careless plays,” Scheyer said. “We have to be stronger with the ball in the second half, and it's not just the fact you don't score. I would have rather had us punt the ball out of bounds a few times because at least we can set our defense. 

“But once you give them the ball, they're too fast in transition, man. They're going to make you pay.” 

After a pair of free throws from Trimble, a jumpshot from Proctor gave Duke a six-point lead with 3:24 left. 

Proctor finished with 11 points, shooting 4-of-11 from the field along with two steals. 

“I thought Tyrese had the shot of the game,” Scheyer said. “We were up four. We couldn't score.  They were scoring down every time down. He had a pull-up to put us up six, where it rolled in.  That was a big basket for us, to get some breathing room.” 

With 32 seconds left and Carolina down three, Trimble was fouled after a rebound. He hit both free throws making it a one-point game. 

Carolina had to foul on the other end to extend the game. Proctor was fouled and missed the front end of the one-and-one. 

Hubert Davis called timeout with 17 seconds remaining. 

The Heels got the ball down to Lubin on the block, who was fouled going up. Lubin missed the first free throw, but hit the second one to tie it with four seconds to go. 

But it was called off, as a lane violation was assessed on Carolina forward Jae’Lyn Withers, the hero who shot 7-of-10 from beyond the arc in Carolina’s first game of the tournament. 

“I've never seen anything like that before, especially up one,” Kneuppel said. “That was very interesting. But yeah, we were obviously pretty happy. They didn't even get a shot at tying it.” 

Hubert Davis was asked about the call in the postgame presser. 

“I'm not answering that,” Davis said. “We lost 74-71.” 

The Heels obviously still had a chance with four seconds left, albeit a far-fetched one. Carolina fouled Kneuppel, who knocked down both free throws. 

With 2.5 seconds left, down three, the Heels got an inbounds pass to Lubin, who had to take a tough fadeaway that bounced off the rim, sending Duke to the ACC Championship. 

“I mean, I think we're in the same mentality, just win the game,” Proctor said. “Coach always talks about find a way to win, and it was one of those games. It was a war, and I think we just found a way to win.” 

Without Flagg and Maliq Brown, all Blue Devils stepped up. 

Kneuppel led the team with 17, Maluach had 13, Sion James and Patrick Ngongba II each had 12 and Proctor had 11. 

Lubin finished with 20 points for the Tar Heels. Cadeau and Trimble were close behind with 15 and 14, respectively. Drake Powell had 10 and R.J. Davis had eight. 

The Tar Heels, who were listed as a “last four in” on Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology before the game hope they’ve done enough to continue their season. 

“I think we've saw in the past couple weeks that we are a tournament team,” Carolina guard R.J. Davis said. “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, that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all and comes out on top. I think that's a tournament team for you right there, because that's what March is about.” 

As for Duke, the Blue Devils will hope to win the ACC Championship Saturday night without Cooper Flagg. They will take on the winner of No. 2 seed Louisville and No. 3 seed Clemson at 8:30 p.m. ET. 

“It's awesome for us to have this type of adversity,” Kneuppel said. “To be honest, we haven't had a bunch of it this season, so it's great. We don't want the injuries—that sucks. But having the close games, close battles down the stretch are big. …

“It's pretty sweet. Good to get two wins and play for the title tomorrow. We'll be ready, and it's a great challenge to get a second championship here this season.”