DURHAM, NC - While Duke has led North Carolina for only 16 seconds in the teams' two meetings this season, the Blue Devils appeared on the verge of overtaking the Tar Heels early in the second half, and perhaps shifting the direction of their game Saturday night.
The tense moment was fueled by a 9-3 Duke run to start the second half, capped by a Jeremy Roach 3-pointer making it a one-point game at 43-42 Carolina with 16:59 remaining.
But as it has so often this season, UNC responded authoratatively using a 9-1 run to create some cushion in a game the seventh-ranked Heels won 84-79.
"I think that was probably the most important part of the game wen they cut it to one," UNC Coach Hubert Davis said. "How we reacted, and how we responded... took the lead up to (10) from that point.
The 9-1 spurt became 13-4, giving Carolina a 56-46 lead after a Cormac Ryan jumper with 11:20 remaining.
Carolina had to first bowl up to engineer the run.
After it failed to score on its following possession, the Blue Devils were a basket away from their first lead of the game. The crowd was at its loudest point of the night, but the Tar Heels didn’t panic. Instead, they responded.
“We got a lot of veteran guys that have been in situations like this. We just stayed poised,” said UNC's Armando Bacot. “It’s a long game and we understood all week that it would be a situation where the game would get close.”
Bacot helped power the scoring run with a three-point play to make it 48-43, as North Carolina never trailed by less than three following his made field goal.
Ryan, who turned in a career-high 31 points, started the spurt at the free throw line and capped it off with a breakaway layup to stretch the lead to 52-43.
In total, the Tar Heels scored 19 fastbreak points on the night, using its fast paced offense to blitz the Blue Devils.
But, in order to extend its lead and silence Duke’s comeback effort, the Tar Heels relied on its bread and butter: defense.
“We got stops on the defensive end. That was the main thing,” said UNC guard RJ Davis. It was a kind of back and forth game at one point, but [the way] for us to set [ourselves] apart was to get stops on the other end. We did that and we were able to get out into transition and score.”
The Blue Devils missed all four shot attempts during North Carolina’s run, highlighted by consecutive blocks from Jae’Lyn Withers and Bacot.
In turn, the Tar Heels were able to speed up its offensive attack and get back in its comfort zone.
Hubert Davis referenced the under-16 media timeout being the most important point in the game, as his team took his message to heart and locked in defensively.
“We got ticked off in the huddle. We were upset, all of us,” said Hubert Davis. “We talked about the poise [and said] ‘Okay, let’s turn this thing up. Let’s get stops defensively that allow us to get out in transition.’”
Even as Duke made a late push in the final minutes, the Tar Heels had already taken its biggest punch, making a late-round knockout impossible.
One can reference the nine point halftime advantage, the 50 percent shooting from the field, or the six made threes from Ryan as keys to victory, but North Carolina won the ACC title with the 9-1 response in the second half.
Even with the lead shrinking and their backs against the wall, there was no panic and there was no fear, only belief.
“We knew that we were good,” said Bacot. “There was no panic in us.”
