The Duke Blue Devils (19-2, 11-0 ACC) dismantle the North Carolina Tar Heels (13-10, 6-5 ACC), 87-70 in Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday evening. The Blue Devils extend the nation’s longest win streak to 15 games as the Tar Heels become losers of 4 of their last 5 matchups.
Duke star Freshman, Cooper Flagg, began the game on fire and buried the Tar Heels early. Flagg had nine points and two steals at the halfway point of the first half. Seth Trimble of the Tar Heels drained a three bring the Heels within one at 7-6. The Blue Devils then exploded on a 22-4 run to go up 32-10 effectively ending the Tar Heels night. The Blue Devils went into half with a 47-25 lead.
Freshman Kon Knueppel of the Blue Devils was not to be overshadowed by Flagg. Knueppel began the second half on a personal 5-0 run, scoring 11 of the Blue Devils first 15 points of the second half. The Blue Devils largest lead of the game was a whopping 32 point advantage at 77-45 with 9 minutes to go in the second half. The Tar Heels went on a 18-2 run as the Blue Devils defensive intensity diminished as the game was already out of hand.
Four of Duke’s starting 5 finished the game in double figures led by Kon Knueppel’s 22 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists. Flagg ended up scoring 21 points with 7 rebounds and 7 assists. The last time two Blue Devils finished with 20 points against the Heels was 2010, Jon Scheyers senior season. The last game with a lopsided score was also Scheyer’s 2010 Blue Devil team winning 82-50.
The Tar Heels were led by senior RJ Davis’ 12 points as well as freshman Drake Powell’s 12. The only other Tar Heel to finish in double digits was Seth Trimble, who got the start, with 10 points. Ian Jackson finished with 8 making one three pointer.
Key Stat
The Blue Devils made 28 shots on 20 assists. The Blue Devils shared the ball effectively breaking the Tar Heels full court pressure as well as their 2-3 zone. The Duke starting 5 combined for 18 of the 20 assists.
Takeaways
Duke welcomed back Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown who had been sidelined with a knee injury since January 11th. He made an immediate impact on the game with two steals and multiple deflections to disrupt the Tar Heels offense. Brown played a crucial 16 minutes in relief of Maluach. When Duke is healthy, they have the ability to beat anyone in the country.
The Tar Heels lack of interior showed. Even though the Heels won the rebounding battle (31-26), the Blue Devils were able to drive the lane and finish at the rim. All hope is not lost though, Ven-Allen Lubin showed promise with 3 blocks against the Devils and 6 boards.
Next up the Tar Heels have a week to get things right as they head into a make-or-break portion of the schedule. The Heels host Pittsburgh (14-7, 5-5 ACC) on Saturday then head to second place Clemson (18-4, 10-1 ACC) on Monday on the short turnaround. The Heels need two victories to get back into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
The Blue Devils head to Syracuse (10-12, 4-7 ACC) on Wednesday and then to Clemson for a top of the conference showdown with the Tigers Saturday evening.
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