There's nothing finer than beating Carolina.
However, last night's 89-77 win was more than a Duke victory over UNC-it was the Blue Devils' 33rd consecutive victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium, their eighth straight ACC win and their 20th victory of the season.
But this victory definitely was not a masterpiece. It revealed Duke's occasional lack of consistency in playing team defense.
Last night the Blue Devil defense was at both its best and its worst. In the first half, Duke's defense was mediocre at best, allowing the Tar Heels to shoot 55 percent from the floor and failing to limit UNC's second chances off missed shots.
"We did not do a good job on the boards in the first half," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They seemed to get every second-chance basket. We'd get a five point lead in the first half and play pretty good defense, and the ball would go up, they'd get a rebound and we'd foul them.
"That's what they do. That's their game. They do it well."
Take for instance when Duke allowed Ademola Okulaja to score eight straight points at the end of the first half, closing the Blue Devil lead to four points.
On three straight occasions Okulaja broke free for layups. He also was fouled on two of these moves
Also, point guard Ed Cota's quickness and driving ability gave the Blue Devils problems. On two separate occasions, Cota was able to retrieve his own missed shots and convert them into easy baskets. Most of his season-high 20 points were on driving layups or floating jumpers after he penetrated into the lane.
Duke's less than stellar defense in the first half, though, improved dramatically in the second as the Blue Devils appeared to be more inspired, consequently playing tighter on their men.
Duke tightened the reigns as the Tar Heels managed to shoot only 38 percent from the floor. In particular, Duke's big men limited the number of easy layups and drives to the basket that had victimized their first half play.
In the second half alone, the Blue Devils swatted six shots with Elton Brand recording half of them. Additionally, the big men did a solid job in holding Brendan Haywood to seven points and only five boards, both figures well below his averages of 12.7 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game.
"In the second half I thought we did a much better job on defense," Krzyzewski said. "I really thought Burgess gave us a huge lift. Maybe not stat-wise. We're really a tired basketball team right now. They make you more tired because they're so physical.
"Burgess just seemed to give us some fire there with about 10 minutes in that period [in the second half], and I thought he really helped us. And I thought that his play was a key to the basketball game."
The Blue Devils did step up their play, shutting down UNC during a 12-1 run late in the second half that lasted from the 9:00 mark until 4:25, turning a 68-65 deficit into a 77-69 lead.
During this game-deciding run, the Duke defense stepped up in a huge way. Chris Carrawell's play foiled UNC's efforts, blocking a Ron Curry layup and stealing the ball on consecutive Tar Heel possessions.
And coming off an exhausting win over St. John's Sunday, Duke still had enough left in its tank last night to turn back a disappointed UNC squad.
"We certainly don't have any moral victories," said Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge, who is 0-2 in Cameron. "I think we did a lot of good things and we've been improving. They played good defense the whole game and they came up with big plays, and that is what you have to do to win a game like this."
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