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Game commentary

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Tar Heels prevail despite tough Blue Devil defense**

CHAPEL HILL--The defense employed by the men's basketball team stopped No. 8 North Carolina on Wednesday night.

Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, the Tar Heels still managed to sneak out with a 73-72 victory. Duke led all but two times in the entire game, once in the first minute of the game, 4-2, and again after the final UNC possession which sent the Blue Devils to the one-point loss. Duke had 6.5 seconds left, but a jump shot by sophomore Ricky Price banged off the rim and fell short to ensure the North Carolina win.

"I feel we're very lucky to have won over a great Duke team," UNC head coach Dean Smith said. "They're a very talented and experienced team; they played very well on the road. I was impressed before the game--I'm even more impressed with them now."

The Blue Devils contained the highly explosive Tar Heels by holding three of North Carolina's leading scorers--Dante Calabria, Jeff McInnis and Vince Carter--below their scoring averages. Calabria racks up almost 14 points per game, but Duke held him to a mere six points Wednesday night. Calabria was one of the nation's top three-point shooters last year, but he hit just 1-of-5 shots against the Blue Devils.

"I thought [junior center Greg] Newton was just a superior defender," Smith said. "He's an extremely quick athlete... and made us look bad on occasion. It's one of those wins you're just grateful for. We must improve. We have to shoot better than that, but Duke's defense had a lot to do with that."

Calabria's teammate, point guard Jeff McInnis, credited the Blue Devils' defense as the reason UNC could not accomplish many of its usual offensive schemes.

"They played good defense, and we couldn't get into some of our sets," McInnis said. "We just went to our second options and got some of our baskets there. They played good defense and good offense. They deserved to win this game as much as we did."

Despite the varied opinions about Duke's defensive performance from the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils were clearly pleased with their performance, even considering the fact that UNC finished as the victor.

"I thought Chris Collins played [McInnis] pretty well," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I thought we defended [the dribble penetration] very well tonight."

Yet the knowledge that the Blue Devils engineered a strong defensive battle does not totally dissuade the feelings of disappointment felt by the loss.

"It's real tough," sophomore Steve Wojciechowski said. "It's hard to put into words. We played so hard, we played so together, guys are hugging and then at the end they make a big shot. It doesn't feel good.

"We're making improvements and I think that's the thing we have to focus on. We can't let this game decide our season."

Even though Price missed a game-winning shot, his multi-faceted performance became one of the highlights of the contest for Duke. It seems that the recent slump which had plagued Price in recent Atlantic Coast Conference battles has been replaced with a greater confidence, both offensively and defensively.

"I thought Ricky played outstanding basketball," Krzyzewski said. "I hope he doesn't elaborate on missing the last shot. It's one of those things where it was good that he did get the last shot. He was probably the kid on our team that deserved to shoot that last shot. He played an all-around game tonight."

One portion of the defense that was noticeably absent at times was Duke's rebounding. The Tar Heels outrebounded the Blue Devils 43-29, giving UNC many opportunities for second- and third-chance buckets.

Even with the rebounding differential, though, Duke showed it can stop a potent offensive team. Smith admitted his failure in preparing his Tar Heels for the challenges which Duke presented UNC with.

"I did a bad job and Coach Krzyzewski did a great job getting his team ready for this," Smith said. "The better team didn't win. Maybe it would have helped us more to have lost.