DURHAM, NC - Keeping pace early with ranked opponents has been an issue for North Carolina this season. Entering Saturday’s tilt with Duke inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Tar Heels were 1-4 against ranked foes, having trailed by double-digits in the first half of all five games.
Kansas led UNC by as many as 20 in the opening 20 minutes, Auburn’s advantage ballooned to 15, Alabama possessed a 13-point lead inside the Smith Center, and Florida sprinted out to a 42-25 edge in Charlotte.
In Maui against Michigan State, who now finds itself ranked No. 7 in the country, it trailed by as many as 14 in the opening frame.
For the Blue Devils, the inevitable first-half run came early, as they used a 16-0 spurt inside the first ten minutes to hold a 23-6 lead.
A Seth Trimble jumpshot brought UNC within one at 7-6 with 16:08 on the clock, and preceded the run that would prove to be too much to overcome in the 87-70 defeat.
Over the next 2:36 of gametime, Duke connected on all six of its shot attempts, held the Tar Heels to 0-for-5 shooting, and turned two UNC turnovers into five points.
“They got out in transition and capitalized off of our turnovers. You get turnovers and you’re able to run,” said Trimble. “Any team can execute. A team like them, they execute night in and night out like that.”
UNC Coach Hubert Davis said the much taller Blue Devils used that to their advantage defending the smallish Tar Heels.
“Our unforced turnovers is something that we’ve had a problem with. It’s just turning the ball over,” he said. “We’ve talked at great length [about] how important it is to take care of the ball. Our live ball turnovers are turning into pick six plays for the opponent.”
The trio of Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Proctor, and Kon Knueppel accounted for all 16 points during the stretch, each making two baskets.
Proctor’s corner three opened up the scoring barrage, as the junior tallied the first five points of the scoring spree.
Following a missed three from Ian Jackson, which came as part of a scoring drought that lasted 3:21 for North Carolina, Flagg connected on his first of three made 3s. The freshman phenom followed up with an and-one basket on the fastbreak to give the Blue Devils a double digit edge at 18-7.
After a Tar Heel timeout and Jalen Washington turnover, Knueppel got in on the action for the No. 2 team in the country, as his 3-point basket and two-point jumper denoted the end of the scoring spurt, which spanned just 2:36 of gametime.
Duke’s suffocating burst came in all forms and fashion, converting two 3-point attempts, its lone free throw, a dunk, and two-point jumpshot.
The Blue Devils averaged a point every 9.8 seconds during the run, and scored less than six seconds into the shot clock on three occasions.
Less than seven minutes into the game, and North Carolina was in familiar territory, a place it had only recovered from just once, a win over UCLA in December.
“I think we just kind of lost focus with the crowd and the score. I think we kind of lost some focus on that [and] lost control of the game,” said big man Ven-Allen Lubin. “We gotta stick to what’s going on within ourselves so that’s something we’ve got to learn and pick up.”
Losing focus has led to North Carolina trailing by double digits in the first half in all six games against ranked opponents on the season. And like four times before, Duke used a crushing 16-0 run to flex its muscles en route to a victory over the Tar Heels.
