No. 2 Duke completed its rivalry series sweep against North Carolina, winning 82-69 after a dominant second-half performance.
The win stamps the Blue Devils (28-3, 19-1 ACC) as the outright ACC regular season champions and likely solidifies their chances at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Freshman forward Kon Knueppel, who dropped 22 points in the first meeting, starred again in Chapel Hill with 17 points. Outside of Knueppel, Duke finished with four players scoring 15 or more points, including freshman forward Cooper Flagg, who ended with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. The Blue Devils rarely cooled off throughout the contest — symbolic of their current lopsided winning streak — shooting 56.4% from the field and 47.4% from three.
Duke’s lights-out shooting was on full display early. They led by as much as 15 points in the first half, even with Flagg in foul trouble.
North Carolina (20-12, 13-7 ACC) caught fire with eight minutes left before the break, going on a 10-0 to cut the deficit to one point at halftime. Graduate guard RJ Davis and the Tar Heels continued the hot streak in the second half, overtaking the Blue Devils and leading by as much as seven points. Across Duke’s seven-game win streak, where they’ve won by 32 points on average, this was the Blue Devils’ first test in weeks.
The tide turned back in Duke’s favor from there, though, and stayed that way for the rest of the affair. Outscoring UNC 33-13 after North Carolina took a seven-point lead, the Blue Devils didn’t skip a beat. Davis, who scored 15 points in the first half and five in the early minutes of second half, went scoreless in the last 17 minutes of the contest.
The Tar Heels will look to the ACC tournament as an opportunity to help their case at a spot in March Madness.
