North Carolina led by 10 with 2:38 left but unraveled as Duke outscored the Heels 13-2 with three three-pointers including one at the buzzer by Austin Rivers as the Devils won 85-84 in Chapel Hill.

Duke’s strategy of shooting threes paid off as the Devils took 36 three-point shots hitting 14 of them. Rivers, demonstrative after each of his six threes, finished the game with 29 points to lead all scorers.

The Devils started out hot and led by seven at 32-25 following Duke’s seventh three pointer of the half, that one by Seth Curry.

But the Tar Heels scratched back, mainly behind the offense and defense to Tyler Zeller, to take a 43-40 lead at the half.

But it was Zeller, who had 23 points, who was the goat at the end of the game.

While the Heels started the second half with a 14-4 run to take a 57-44 lead, everything changed late.

“We fought like crazy just to stay in it and in the last three minutes we got hot,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Unfortunately for Zeller, Duke’s opportunities came in great part at his expense. Zeller missed a couple of free throws over the last 44 seconds and then accidently tipped in a shot by Kelly that was way off.

Meanwhile Tyler Thornton hit a three, Curry hit a three and Ryan Kelly hit a baseline jumper following a Harrison Barnes charge, all in less than a minute, to cut Carolina’s lead to two at 82-80 with 1:07 left.

Zeller hit one of two free throws to make it 83-80 with 44 seconds left. Following a Duke timeout, Kelly put up that shot that Zeller accidently tipped in to make it 83-82.

Zeller was again fouled but missed the second of a two-shot opportunity to give the Heels only a two-point cushion at 84-82 against three-happy Duke.

Zeller had an opportunity to be a hero again on defense as he was matched up outside against Rivers with time dwindling down but the 7-footer didn’t get close enough to Rivers to have any effect on the winning shot at the buzzer.

“They got a little lucky on the ball I tipped in,” Zeller said. “But the two free throws I missed left the door open.”

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