Blue Devils fall to UNC, 91-85

CHAPEL HILL - Characteristic of any time the two Tobacco Road rivals meet, the contest between the seventh-ranked men's basketball team (23-7, 12-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) and the No. 8 Tar Heels (21-6, 11-5 in the ACC) was close.

But it was not close enough for the Blue Devils to pull out a victory Sunday afternoon at the Dean Smith Center, losing 91-85. The loss was the first conference loss for Duke after eight straight wins within the ACC.

After North Carolina had led for much of the game, the Blue Devils appeared poised to silence a raucous Carolina crowd when they went on an 8-1 run with less than three minutes to play in the second half-cutting the UNC lead to four at 87-83-but they could get no closer.

During the stretch, junior Ricky Price and senior Jeff Capel hit three-point shots, and junior Trajan Langdon hit two clutch free throws.

The Blue Devils then had a chance to move within one, but Langdon's three-point attempt would not fall, and freshman Mike Chappell's three-pointer on the next possession was off as well. After the two failed attempts, Duke could get no closer.

"We should have taken it to the hole," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We're four points down with the ball and they have nine team fouls-you want to put them into the position to maybe foul and then kick out for a three. They were courageous shots, but they weren't necessarily what we needed at that point."

Duke's play in the second half kept the game close after heading into the locker room at halftime with a nine-point deficit at 49-40. The first half began with a Blue Devil surge, but quickly transformed as UNC took control of the boards.

Duke charged out to a quick start when North Carolina coach Dean Smith honored his senior-day tradition of starting all his seniors, including walk-ons Charlie McNairy and Webb Tyndall, but the Blue Devils could not hold their fragile lead. Following a lay-in by Cota at the 5:41 mark to tie the game at 29 apiece, the Tar Heels would not trail again. Carolina built a 13-point lead after stifling Duke with a 24-3 run in just six minutes.

"Steve had to do a lot on his own to get us into a mood to compete for that game," Krzyzewski said.

But the fact that Wojciechowski led the team with a mere three boards signifies a major factor of the Blue Devils' troubles-rebounding. Duke finished the game with only 18 rebounds as compared to the Tar Heels' 49. UNC sophomore Antawn Jamison alone managed to pull down 11 boards and senior Serge Zwikker had 10. Carolina more than tripled Duke's offensive rebounding effort by grabbing 22 as compared to the Blue Devils' six.

"Their strength is their rebounding, and they really controlled the boards," Wojciechowski said. "That was the difference."

Although the Blue Devils' dismal rebounding effort did not help in Duke's cause to sweep the Tar Heels and finish the second half of conference play undefeated, neither did the play of Jamison or freshman point guard Ed Cota. Jamison avenged his 10-point performance during the two teams' last meeting on Jan. 29 by scoring 33 points to record his 13th double-double of the season.

"I was in one of those zones," Jamison said. "Everything was going my way. I was calling for the ball because I was just in a zone. Ed and the rest of my teammates did a good job of finding me down low."

Cota not only did a good job of finding Jamison, but everyone else wearing a Carolina uniform as well. Although the playmaker had six turnovers, he dished out 11 assists as well as scoring 12 points.

Both Jamison's and Cota's performances overshadowed excellent three-point shooting by the Blue Devils. Duke shot 50 percent from beyond the arc, hitting 17-of-34 three-pointers.

"We got pretty good looks at the basket," Capel said. "We hit 17 threes, and that's good for any game."

In fact, those 17 three-point shots were a new school record for Duke, breaking their old mark of 15 set at N.C. State on Feb. 8. But as evidenced by the result of the game, the Blue Devils cannot rely on their three-point shooting to win games. The Tar Heels only managed to hit 2-of-9 from three-point range, but their ability to get the ball inside was what helped them win the game.

Also, following Wake Forest's loss to Florida State Saturday, the Blue Devils knew they had won the regular season championship outright before the UNC game, raising the possibility that there was not the same incentive to win the game as before.

"Certainly on a psychological barrier after winning the regular season championship before coming over here you're afraid of losing your edge," Krzyzewski said. "Our team, having won it, didn't have that edge in the first half."

But this concern did not seem to echo some of the players' sentiments.

"We wanted to go out there and beat Carolina," Wojciechowski said. "I don't care if it was for the ACC Championship or not for the ACC Championship. It was Duke-Carolina."

Duke now has five days to prepare for the ACC Tournament where they will face the winner of the play-in game from Thursday night, either N.C. State or Georgia Tech. The loss to the Tar Heels might help the Blue Devils focus their efforts as they head into post-season play.

"It seemed like the game meant a little more to [UNC]," Capel said. "That's a lesson that hopefully we'll learn before the first round of the ACC Tournament-each game we have to come out and play like it's our last game of the year."