The Duke Blue Devils fell to the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday, cementing the ACC regular-season crown for UNC. Read our recap of the game here.
Cormac Ryan caught a quick pass from RJ Davis and pulled up from deep.
He knocked down the three to put North Carolina up nine late against Duke. Ryan eviscerated the Blue Devils for a career-high 31 points, shooting 8/12 for the floor and 6/8 from behind the 3-point line.
The Duke Blue Devils (24-7, 15-5 ACC) fell to the North Carolina Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3 ACC) 84-79 Saturday night.
The Tar Heels shot 50% from the floor and 46.7% from three, while Duke shot 43.3% overall and 39.1% from deep. UNC dominated Duke on the boards, outrebounding the Blue Devils 39 to 28.
The North Carolina Tar Heels lit up Duke to begin the game. UNC jumped out to a 15-4 lead early, starting 6/7 from the floor in a run capped off by a triple from Ryan before Jon Scheyer took a timeout.
RJ Davis dished it out down low to Jalen Washington for a dunk as UNC maintained its double-digit lead midway through the first half. With eight minutes left in the half, Davis knocked down a step-back three to keep the lead at 15 points.
Whenever Duke began to chip into the deficit, the Tar Heels found a response. Tyrese Proctor stole the ball from Davis and raced away for an easy transition layup to cut it to 10 before UNC once again responded with a Seth Trimble layup.
The Blue Devils kept fighting back, however. Jared McCain buried a triple to make it a single-digit deficit again. The freshman had nine early points as he worked to keep Duke in the game.
Proctor drained a three as the Blue Devils continued to climb back into the game. After he scored just two points against the Tar Heels in February, he added 14 for the game with three assists.
The two teams traded baskets before Jae’Lyn Withers grabbed a missed shot and put it back up at the buzzer, a jumper that made it 40-31 in UNC’s favor at halftime. The Tar Heels shot 50% across the opening 20 minutes while Duke shot just 36.7%.
Kyle Filipowski opened the second half by battling down low, hitting two shots to make it a five-point game. He then hit a triple to shrink UNC’s lead to three, part of his team-leading 23 points for the game.
Jeremy Roach fell back as he buried another three, cutting the advantage to one with 17 minutes to play. Ryan hit a pair of free throws to give UNC some breathing room.
UNC began to find success in transition and went on a 7-0 run. Trimble grabbed a board and lobbed it up court to Ryan, who scored a layup to get him up to 14 points for the night.
Ryan’s great game continued after he knocked down yet another three to push the UNC lead back to double digits.
The lead moved to 12 after Davis hit a running floater. The Tar Heels’ advantage on the boards helped UNC capitalize in transition as they maintained its lead.
Ryan buried a triple, his fifth of the game, to stretch the lead back out to nine points with four minutes to play, but Filipowski responded with one of his own as both players led their teams through the second half.
Filipowski came up big for Duke defensively after blocking two Armando Bacot shots in one possession. Ryan continued his memorable game with another triple.
Duke tried to cut the deficit late, but Elliot Cadeau threw up a shot as the shot clock expired and hit it.
A late Jeremy Roach three with five seconds left kept it a one-score game, but after the Blue Devils fouled Ryan late, he hit both free throws to give UNC its second win against Duke this season.
The Blue Devils’ loss means UNC wins the regular-season ACC title outright. The ACC Tournament will start on March 12.
