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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But the Tar Heels scratched back, mainly behind the offense and defense to Tyler Zeller, to take a 43-40 lead at the half.<\/p>\n
But it was Zeller, who had 23 points, who was the goat at the end of the game. <\/p>\n
While the Heels started the second half with a 14-4 run to take a 57-44 lead, everything changed late.<\/p>\n
“We fought like crazy just to stay in it and in the last three minutes we got hot,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“They got a little lucky on the ball I tipped in,” Zeller said. “But the two free throws I missed left the door open.”<\/p>\n