Keeping It Heel
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UNC Basketball: The 5 best Duke wins of the Roy Williams era

By Carson Brown

CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 16: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels looks on from the sideline against the Lipscomb Bisons during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 16: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels looks on from the sideline against the Lipscomb Bisons during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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UNC Basketball
DURHAM, NC – MARCH 8: Danny Green #14 of the North Carolina Tar Heels grabs a rebound against Tyler Hansbrough #50 and Kyle Singler #12 of the Duke Blue Devils during the second half at Cameron Indoor Stadium March 8, 2008 in Durham, North Carolina. North Carolina defeated Duke 76-68. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

February 11th, 2009: UNC 101 Duke 87

This was the first of the two meetings in the 2009 season, and both teams were powerhouses. North Carolina came into the matchup ranked third in the country, and Duke was sixth.

Duke had a strong grip on this game until a second-half eruption from Ty Lawson that guided UNC to victory. North Carolina trailed by as many as nine points, but managed to pull out a 14-point victory. When tournament time came around, UNC was a 1-seed, and Duke was a 2-seed.

North Carolina would go on to win the NCAA championship that season, led by a legendary group of players that included Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Wayne Ellington and Ed Davis, along with Lawson. Those five future NBA players helped make this particular UNC team so successful.

For the Blue Devils, Kyle Singler and Gerald Henderson manned the wing positions. Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith ran the backcourt. And Lance Thomas was the man in the middle for Duke. Similar to the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils boasted NBA talent up and down their lineup.

It was a huge win for UNC. It helped them earn the 1-seed in the NCAA tournament en route to their fifth NCAA title in program history.

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