UNC's Day'Ron Sharpe and Caleb Love reach for a lose ball at Duke. (UNC sports information photo by Maggie Hobson.)

Tar Heels “Love” taking out Blue Devils

Freshman Caleb Love led six North Carolina players in double figures with a season-high 25 points as the Tar Heels held off Duke 91-87 in another classic rivalry matchup despite no fans in Cameron Indoor Stadium. (2/6)

“I was in the zone,” said Love, who hit four of five three pointers. “I knew I had to be a big part of my team.” He said it had been long, up-and-down season for him but that it felt great to make shots.

The Tar Heels, coming off their worst scoring output on the season, had their best scoring output in this game as they pumped in 10 of 15 three pointers and finished shooting more than 53 percent from the floor.

Despite woeful production from the free throw line (missing nine), Carolina scored five from the line in the last minute to salt away another close finish.

The Heels had led by 12 with less than 14 minutes to go after another freshman Day’Ron Sharpe hit a spin shot inside to put Carolina up 62-50.

But Duke, shooting more than 60 percent in the second half, cut the margin to two on four different occasions before finally tying it at 77 with 4:41 left in the game on a controversial Matthew Hurt turn around jumper.

What made it controversial was that Hurt went out of bounds and touched the ball without establishing himself in the field of play. Seconds later Hurt fouled out of the game though giving Carolina an even bigger advantage inside.

Love drove inside and scored shooting across his body with 3:43 to go to give Carolina an 81-79 lead. Despite it staying close the rest of the way, Duke never tied it or led again.

Two Armando Bacot free throws and a three from the left wing by Love put UNC in control at 86-79 with 1:50 to go.

But a pair of quick easy buckets for Duke cut the margin to three at 86-83 with 1:09 to go. Love hit a couple of free throws to up the lead to five at 88-83 with 57 seconds left. But once again, Duke got two quick scores – one by Wendell Moore and one by D.J. Steward – to cut the score to 88-87 with 17 seconds to go.

Carolina’s Leaky Black was triple-teamed and fouled on the inbounds, and hit the second of two free throws to put the Heels up 89-87.

Duke’s Moore, the Devils last-second hero last year at Carolina, drove to the hoop but went up to take a shot, found himself under the basket and came down for a travel before he could throw the ball away with eight seconds left.

Black was fouled again on the inbounds and this time hit both free throws to wrap it up at 91-87.

In the first half, Carolina led by 10 at 28-18 after a Kerwin Walton three from the right side. With Love hitting shots outside and Garrison Brooks controlling the game inside, the Heels held a slim 41-39 lead at the half.

An energized Bacot scored eight of his 16 points in the first four minutes of the second half to help the Heels get the lead back up to 10 at 55-45.

In addition to Love and Bacot, the other Tar Heels in double figures were Black (12), Brooks (12), Walton (12) and Sharpe (11).

The Tar Heels, who host Miami Monday, improved to 12-6 overall and 7-4 in the ACC while the Blue Devils fell to 7-7 and 5-5 in the league.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.

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