A cold-shooting North Carolina team collapsed as Duke drained eight threes in the second half for a come-from-behind 74-64 victory over the Heels. The loss was costly as it dropped the Tar Heels from a second seed to the sixth seed in next week’s ACC Tournament.<\/p>\n
Carolina will also probably face Syracuse, who would have to get by Wake Forest, to get a home crowd advantage at the ACC Tourney, held this year in New York. The loss also likely dropped the Heels from a chance for a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. <\/p>\n
Things looked good for the Tar Heels at the half as they managed to take a 10-point lead into the locker. A 14-4 run at the end of the half, which started with a Luke Maye three and ended with a Kenny Williams three, gave the Heels a 35-25 cushion in Durham on Grayson Allen’s senior night.<\/p>\n
In the second half, Carolina upped its margin to 13 on a Cam Johnson long three from the left wing with just under 17 minutes to play.<\/p>\n
After that, Tar Heel fans would have been well served to watch something else on TV.<\/p>\n
Duke’s Marvin Bagley took over the game for a few minutes to erase the Carolina lead. Bagley scored 10 points over the next five minutes as he aggressively went to the basket and even drained a three from the top of the key.<\/p>\n
Gary Trent completed a 23-8 Duke run with a three pointer that put the Blue Devils up 52-50 midway through the second half.<\/p>\n
Yet another three (Carolina shot an exhorbitant 31 of them), this one by Williams put the Heels back up 58-57 with 7:25 to go. But it turned out to be Carolina’s last lead of the game.<\/p>\n
Allen, who scored 15 points in his senior game, hit a three from the left corner to put Duke up 60-58. Trent hit another three and Wendell Carter hit one and Duke was in control at 70-62 with 3:33 left.<\/p>\n
The Devils hit eight of their last 11 three-point attempts. In fact eight of their last 15 baskets were from beyond the arc. Meanwhile Carolina was cold from three-point land. Carolina’s catalyst, Joel Berry, missed all seven of his attempts and the Heels finished just eight of 31. <\/p>\n
“We played timid in the second half and I think that’s why the ball didn’t go in like we want it to,” UNC’s Kenny Williams said.<\/p>\n
UNC coach Roy Williams seemed to agree but said it differently. “In the second half Duke was much more aggressive than we were,” he said. He added that after back-to-back threes, including one from Bagley, “things started snowballing on us.”<\/p>\n
Bagley threw most of the snowballs as he led Duke with 21 points after getting only three in the first half. “Marvin went nuts for a while and put us on his back,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. <\/p>\n
While Coach Williams would have liked fewer three-point attempts from the Tar Heels, they were missing mid-range open shots as well. “You’ve got to make plays, gotta make shots on big-game days,” he said. <\/p>\n
The Tar Heels, now 22-9 overall and 11-7 in the ACC, tied for third in the league but lost tiebreakers with Miami, Clemson and NC State to fall to the sixth seed. Duke goes into the ACC Tourney with a 25-6 record and a No. 2 seed. <\/p>\n