Champs At Last: No. 8 UNC Clinches ACC With 76-72 Win at Duke

The No. 8 UNC men’s basketball team took a large step in silencing their biggest critics on Saturday night—knocking off the No. 17 Duke Blue Devils 76-72 at Cameron Indoor Stadium to clinch the ACC regular season championship.

For the last four years the Tar Heels have been surrounded by the same questions. Questions about their toughness, their killer instinct, and their ability to beat their fiercest rival.

And that doesn’t even include all the off-the-court drama.

Led by ACC Player of the Year candidate Brice Johnson’s 18 points and 21 rebounds, and four critical free throws down the stretch by Marcus Paige–UNC might have just put those questions to bed for good.

The Tar Heels finish the regular season at 25-6 with a 14-4 ACC mark, but more importantly Paige, Johnson and the rest of the UNC seniors can take the monkey off their back.

They’ve finally won in Durham, and they finally can call themselves conference champions.

“After these four years, three losses in a row here—to come out here win an outright [conference] championship in Cameron,” Paige said after the game. “I can’t be more happy for this group. We’ve been through a lot, so it feels really good.”

With the loss, Duke falls to 22-9 and 11-7 in the ACC. But more importantly the Blue Devils fall to fifth in the conference tournament seeding—missing out on the all-important double bye.

UNC clinched at least a share of the title before the game had tipped off thanks to Miami’s loss at Virginia Tech, but head coach Roy Williams tried his best to keep that information between he and his staff.

“We heard about the Virginia Tech-Miami game before the game,” Williams said. “But we didn’t tell the team. We tried to challenge them that we could win over here and take care of our own business.”

The Tar Heels did more than just take care of business.

In every statistic except three-point shooting and the final score—the usual suspects against Duke—UNC dominated.

Junior forward Kennedy Meeks had a double-double of his own with 12 points and 14 rebounds, and the Tar Heels as a team outrebounded the Blue Devils by an astonishing margin of 64-29.

Timely three-pointers by Grayson Allen, who had 29 points, and Luke Kennard, who had 20, kept Duke afloat–but ultimately UNC’s inside presence proved to be too strong.

“Fourteen rebounds for Kennedy and 21 for Brice Johnson,” Williams said, peering down at his box score. “I’ve been on those two all year long because I want more out of them effort-wise, intelligence-wise. Effort, effort , effort.”

He then went on before adding, “Brice Johnson offensively has done some things that have been done very seldom in my 28 years has a head coach.”

With Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski using just seven players, and one of them—star freshman Brandon Ingram—battling serious foul trouble all night, Williams knew his team would have an answer for each of the Blue Devils’ three-point barrages.

Especially as the game wore on and fatigue set in.

“We were trying to go inside every minute of the game,” he said. “Because we’ve got a size and depth advantage inside.”

As a result, this group of Tar Heels has entered uncharted territory.

Saturday night allowed some lifelong fantasies to come true for UNC. And there’s still more out there for the Tar Heels to accomplish.

After getting a taste of what it’s like to come through on the big stage, it’s fair to say now that it’s time to stop asking questions about this team and start believing.

“I’ve said all year long our dreams were realistic,” Williams said. “Tonight was one of our dreams.”

Up Next:

It’s on to Washington D.C. for the Tar Heels, who will open the ACC Tournament as the top seed at noon on Thursday against the winner of Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

Game Notes:

• Duke never led at any point during the game.
• The Blue Devils also made 13 three-pointers compared to just 12 from two-point range.
• UNC’s 64 rebounds were 12 more than it had in any other game this season. (Previous high was 52 at home against Davidson)
• Despite him not scoring a point, and playing just 12 minutes, UNC outscored Duke by 15 points when junior guard Nate Britt was on the floor.

 

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