Two college games within 24 hours shook the Triangle like perhaps never before.
Duke suffered a heartbreaking football loss to Carolina after taking the lead with less than a minute remaining. The Blue Devils had this game, no doubt about, before the Tar Heels tied it as regulation ended and won in 2 OTs, 47-45.
The night before, second-ranked Duke’s basketball team lost its first home game in two years to an opponent from far away with one player who clearly was coming home for another chance to torture the rival fan base and the Crazies.
The intensity was tangible all Saturday before the kickoff, and that passion heated up as the temperature dropped in Kenan Stadium. Carolina fans in the sold-out arena grew fearful their team’s late collapse of last season was replicating.
Both teams played their guts out, and Duke was clearly better prepared to try to end a four-game losing streak to their arch-rival. Head coach Mike Elko played the short game by running time off the clock to limit UNC possessions.
Carolina held a perilous 12-point lead largely because its red zone offense failed again and four potential touchdowns turned into short field goals. Then with time no longer on their side, the Blue Devils opened up the offense to launch a comeback.
They pulled it off with two straight touchdowns against a gassed UNC defense that was on the field for seven straight minutes in the fourth quarter, due to a perfectly executed onside kick that was one of several tricks with which Elko’s game plan bamboozled Carolina.
The teams combined for 39 points in the fourth quarter, easily surpassing the over-under of 51.
Duke took the late lead on a 30-yard pass from freshman QB Grayson Loftis, a third stringer assuming a familiar role of giving Carolina fits, to a receiver who had slipped past a defense that supposedly prevented such chunk plays. Loftis hit 16 of 28 passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns, two more than Drake Maye, and no interceptions. He didn’t win, but he was almost Maye’s equal this night.
Even after Duke made a 2-point conversion for a three-point lead, 41 seconds still remained. “Maye Day!!!” was the call from the sideline.
“We got this!” he told Mack Brown before going on the field.
While Maye’s performance wasn’t one for the record books, his late rally heroics will always be in our memory banks. Against the best defense in the ACC and a leader nationally, Maye took his team 50 yards to the Duke 25 from where the Heels called their last timeout with :03 left on the clock.
Noah Burnette — who has won back his job after last-season flubs — squared up a 43-yard field goal, his longest of the night by 10 yards, giving him 18 of 19 on the season plus four more extra points for a perfect 38 for 38.
It sent the game into the first overtime, where Burnette tied the score again on his 24-yard boot. Maye made the winning plays in the second OT on a 5-yard touchdown run and a 2-point conversion pass to John Copenhaver. The defense stopped Duke’s tying 2-pointer after giving up 392 total yards.
The relieved students, followed by fans, stormed the field to celebrate Carolina’s fifth consecutive win over the Blue Devils on Senior Night, truly a scene to remember.
The Tar Heels had come back to win on the play of Maye, the legs of Omarion Hampton, the hands of Tez Walker and the foot of Burnette, who set a school record with six field goals and leads the team in scoring with 92 points.
Hampton had his fifth straight game with a 100-plus yards rushing, this time for 171 and a touchdown and an average of 5.5 yards per carry. The ACC’s leading rusher caught eight passes from Maye, who also ran for 30 yards and two touchdowns. Together, they accounted for all but 4 of UNC’s 547 total yards.
Walker had seven catches for 162 yards, just missing two touchdowns on spectacular receptions, and averaged 23-plus yards a catch.
In the end, Maye was the man. “A storybook ending,” he said of the finish and likely his final game at Kenan.
“He made some unbelievable plays I have never seen before,” Brown said after his 13th straight win over Duke. “He’s the best quarterback in the country.”
* * *
The previous night, Caleb Love’s return to the state he both thrilled and exasperated during three seasons at Carolina could not have gone any better. For him and his new Arizona team on national television.
Love returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium, where he had already won twice as a lightning rod guard for the Tar Heels, who are still on his mind.
He stepped onto the famed court at Duke wearing NIKE pumps with a light blue Swoosh and the words he had written on them, ‘Tar Heel 4L,” which stood for Tar Heel For Life.
“That’s what I am, a Tar Heel for life,” he said, after his four free throws sealed the 78-73 win for the veteran No. 12 Wildcats that may have exposed the second-ranked Blue Devils as an average rebounding and outside shooting team. “Regardless of our differences or what happened in the past, I still have love for Tar Heel Nation.”
Arizona guard Caleb Love (2) drives against Duke guard Tyrese Proctor during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Durham, N.C., Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
From boos the Cameron Crazies delivered during warm-ups and throughout the 33 minutes he played, Love was a familiar version of himself. He took a couple of bad shots and had a team-high six turnovers, but — as he often did in Chapel Hill — Love found himself with the ball and the clock winding down.
And in his last visit to the bandbox where he is now 3-1, Love made big plays on both ends of the floor. Late in the first half, he hustled to block a shot by Duke’s Mark Mitchell in front of the Arizona bench, which erupted in support as more boos rained down. Then, racing the clock, he threw up a long 3-pointer that hit the backboard and settled in the net to give the ‘Cats an 8-point lead at the break.
That came at the basket where Mike Krzyzewski watched from a baseline chair. It was Love’s former team that ended the Cameron career of the Hall of Famer with a loss, then one month later he sent Coach K into retirement with that majestic jumper at the Final Four. Two outcomes that neither fan base will ever forget.
Of Love’s 11 points, four came late in the second half on the pressure free throws to secure the win after he assisted on a three-point play to regain the lead in the see-saw game, the first home loss for second-year Duke coach Jon Scheyer.
As he celebrated with his new teammates, Love waved to the crowd that he frustrated for the third time. “I just told them goodbye,” he said. “It’s over with.”
Caleb Love waves goodbye to the Cameron Crazies after Arizona defeats Duke 78-73. pic.twitter.com/hfXkNjC8Eo
— Carolina Blitz (@KeepBlitzin) November 11, 2023
As for the football Blue Devils, they endured an even tougher loss the next night to their B-F-Rival. The Tar Heels ended 6-4 Duke’s hope for an ACC championship game appearance while keeping their own chances alive.
The Blue Devils proved just as challenging as resurgent Clemson and N.C. State will be the next two weeks, both on the road. The Tigers and Wolfpack boast comeback quarterbacks in Cade Klubnik and Brennan Armstrong, who were responsible for nearly 500 total yards of offense in their respective wins on Saturday afternoon over Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.
Those trips to Death Valley and Raleigh look even more daunting for the 8-2 Tar Heels than they did earlier in the season.
Featured photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
I love it when Chansky chants, altho this one was a combination of a satisfied grunt, a chortle and a teeny bit of a suppressed gloat. I intend to read and re-read this chant several more times to fully absorb how good it feels to beat the dookies. Thanks Chansky and keep on chanting!!!