The night in the Smith Center started with a rousing cheer. Mike Krzyzewski acknowledged his adoring fans. No, that’s not a typo.

This is Duke-Carolina after all. But the celebrations for the Blue Devils didn’t end after the pregame festivities. Postgame was pretty fun too.

***Listen to the story***

The No.19 North Carolina Tar Heel men’s basketball team, despite leading by as many as seven points in the second half, couldn’t keep up with the aggressive-minded No. 3 Duke Blue Devils Saturday night, falling 84-77.

It was a bit of déjà vu for Carolina, who once again, saw a second half lead dissipate quickly against its immensely talented rival from Durham.

Duke's defense bottled up Kennedy Meeks (Todd Melet)

Duke’s defense bottled up Kennedy Meeks (Todd Melet)

The Blue Devils improved to 28-3 on the season with a 15-3 mark in conference action. With the loss, the Tar Heels dropped to 21-10 overall and 11-7 in ACC play.

Duke freshman guard Tyus Jones led all scorers with 24 points and senior Quinn Cook added in 20 points of his own to apply a powerful one-two punch for a high-octane offense.

In addition, Duke showed its toughness. The Blue Devils battled their way to the foul line on 26 occasions, doubling up UNC, who made a mere 13 trips to the charity stripe. Too often, the Tar Heels settled for shots outside the paint – not a comfort zone.

For the second time in the last three seasons, UNC has failed to send out its seniors with a victory on Senior Night. And for that, UNC head coach Roy Williams was all torn up.

“I hate it on senior day but I was spoiled rotten. Ten years as an assistant coach, we always won on senior day. First 24 years as a head coach, we won on every senior day, and now we’ve lost two of the last three. Whatever I was doing earlier, I need to get back to doing a better job,” Coach Williams says.

***Listen to Roy Williams’ postgame remarks***

UNC junior guard Marcus Paige finished with a team-leading 23 points, but was understandably disappointed with the 16 turnovers committed by Carolina.

Roy Williams shares his side of the story to an official (Todd Melet)

Roy Williams shares his side of the story to an official (Todd Melet)

“We didn’t take care of the ball. We took a couple of quick shots. We weren’t complacent or comfortable with our 7-point lead, but we didn’t stick to what got us there. A couple passes got errant and they capitalized on every single one of them. They had 21 points off turnovers and a lot of them came during that run,” Paige says.

Coach K said there was little separating the two teams, but he was thrilled with the winning result.

“I think it was a similar game as the one in Durham where either team is deserving of winning. Like one play or one little spurt and both teams played unbelievably hard and we’re obviously really pleased because we won a hard fought game against an outstanding team that was obviously ready to play. They were ready to play. I thought our bench was terrific,” Coach K says.

The started with a J.P. Tokoto steal that led to an emphatic dunk by Brice Johnson that tallied the contest’s first points. The Smith Center promptly erupted.

But from there, Duke did Duke things, knocking down outside shots to take an early 14-8 lead.

Johnson was the emotional spearhead for the Tar Heels in the opening 20 minutes of play, screaming after critical rebounds and amping up the raucous fans.

A Paige three-pointer with 6:06 to go before halftime gave UNC its first lead of the contest. At intermission, the Tar Heels held a 33-31 edge thanks in large part to some subpar shooting from Duke.

The Tar Heels stretched it out to a seven-point lead out of the locker room only to watch Duke go on a 14-2 run midway through the second half.

Bodies were flying all over the Smith Center floor (Todd Melet)

Bodies were flying all over the Smith Center floor (Todd Melet)

Duke’s defensive press flustered UNC at times. Six points in less than 20 seconds always helps the cause as well. Two drained three-pointers gave Duke the 68-59 lead with 6:17 to play in the contest.

UNC’s final opportunity was snuffed out in the closing seconds when down five points, freshman Joel Berry fumbled an easy hand-off to Paige. The Smith Center crowd exodus promptly followed.

UNC freshman forward Justin Jackson pretty much summed up the evening for the Tar Heels.

“It just comes down to wanting it more. They made plays down the stretch that we didn’t, and that’s why we lost. It’s as simple as that. First half we came out, and we played pretty hard. Second half, at the start of it we played hard and got lackadaisical. Whenever you get lackadaisical with a team like that they take advantage of it, and that’s just the end of it,” Jackson says.

Next up for the Tar Heels comes the ACC Tournament and a Wednesday meeting in Greensboro with either Boston College or Georgia Tech.

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