UNC basketball stamps NCAA Tournament bid with victory at Duke

UNC basketball says goodbye to Coach K with the warmest of sendoffs.

The North Carolina Tar Heels were never supposed to win Saturday’s game against the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the last for head coach Mike Krzyzewski before retiring at the end of the season, but apparently, nobody bothered to tell them that.

The Tar Heels put together their best overall performance of the season in front of a raucous crowd that boasted roughly 80 Duke alumni, and they solidified their spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament with a commanding 94-81 victory over the fourth-ranked Blue Devils.

After playing a solid first 20 minutes and trailing 41-39 at the intermission, the Tar Heels put on an absolute masterclass on both ends of the court in the second half with 55 points to Duke’s 40.

Four Tar Heels scored at least 20 points, led by soon-to-be ACC Player of the Year Armando Bacot. He scored a game-high 23 points on an outstanding 10-for-11 performance from the floor to go along with seven rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.

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Caleb Love added 22 points on a difficult 4-for-17 shooting night but hit all 12 of his clutch free throws, many of which came in the waning moments of the second half. He also dished out five assists and pulled down five rebounds. His fellow backcourt running mate, R.J. Davis, had a sensational 21-point game on 9-of-16 from the floor and 2-of-4 from three-point range. He matched Love’s five rebounds and had four assists of his own. Brady Manek had a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double and hit five three-pointers.

The Tar Heels shot 48.5 percent (33-of-68) for the game, 39.1 percent (9-of-23) from beyond the arc, and 86.4 percent (19-of-22) at the free throw line. North Carolina won the rebounding battle by three (37-34), assisted on 15 of their 33 made buckets, and only turned the ball over five times.

Duke was led by freshman forward Paolo Banchero, who had 23 points, five rebounds, and five assists, but scored just eight second-half points following a hot-shooting 15-point first half. Mark Williams gave the Blue Devils 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, while reserve guard Jeremy Roach scored 15 on 5-for-6 from the floor and 4-for-4 at the foul line.

Duke, 26-5 overall and 16-4 in ACC play, shot 49.3 percent (34-of-69) for the game, 36.8 percent (7-of-19) from downtown, and 75 percent (6-of-8) at the charity stripe. The Blue Devils committed five more turnovers than the Tar Heels (9) and got called for the same amount of personal fouls (14).

The Tar Heels improved to 23-8 on the season and 15-5 in league play. They earn the 3-seed double-bye in next week’s ACC Tournament.

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