There was no overtime, no last-second comeback and nothing went down to the wire. Saturday's 90-76 victory over North Carolina (18-12, 9-7) was low-suspense, high-energy basketball-exactly what senior Chris Carrawell wanted for his Cameron farewell.
"It was a classic when we played UNC over there this year," Carrawell said of the January overtime thriller. "I didn't want a classic today. I wanted us to win this one going away. I couldn't have written a better script."
In that script, the No. 4 Blue Devils (24-4, 15-1) played the part of innocent bystanders in the most important play of the game. With Duke up by five and 10:57 left in the first half, Ed Cota and Jason Capel banged heads. On Cota's end, the clash was severe enough to merit five stitches and, more importantly, over seven key minutes off the court.
The Blue Devils, jumping on the opportunity, went on a 21-8 run in Cota's absence, featuring three steals by Jason Williams and two by Shane Battier. In the minutes following Cota's departure, Williams made two layups in the span of eight seconds-his only two field goals of the game.
And when Cota came back into the game with three minutes remaining in the first half and his team down by 18, he really didn't know what hit him.
Ultimately, North Carolina was never able to make significant headway into the cushion Duke built up in Cota's absence.
"He's like the quarterback of their team," Carlos Boozer
At one point in the second half, North Carolina cut the deficit to nine, but two quick three-pointers put the game away for Duke. The first came with just over four minutes left to play. As the shot clock hit one second, Nate James lofted up a desperation three from the left corner which somehow found the basket.
"When that shot went in, I saw Capel and [Joseph] Forte were like, 'Oh my god, I know he didn't hit that,'" Carrawell said. "After that, it was over."
Less than a minute after James hit his miracle shot, Battier nailed a three from well beyond the arc-his sixth of the game. Battier went 6-for-9 on three pointers, just three days after a 7-for-10 performance against Clemson Wednesday night.
He finished with a game-high 30 points, continuing his recent offensive outburst.
"The way he's been playing, he's making the player of the year race kind of interesting," Carrawell said. "I told Shane, go out there and score 40 if you have to, I don't want it to be over yet."
The bright spots for Carolina came in the play of Forte and Brendan Haywood. Forte finished the game with 24 points, six rebounds and five assists. Haywood blocked six shots and shut down Boozer early in the game.
"He's a really big fellow," Boozer said. "I had to adjust in the second half, start using my quickness to get around him."
Coming
Christensen helped ease fears about the Blue Devil bench during Mike Dunleavy's bout with mononucleosis. Coach Mike Krzyzewski said another reason for the team's success was the extended TV time-outs.
"The TV timeouts were so long that our guys got a lot of rest," Krzyzewski said. "I didn't have to go into the bench as much.... Our guys played a lot of minutes without seemingly getting tired."
Krzyzewski may or may not have to keep dealing with a non-Dunleavy bench. He asked to suit up for the game and was able to do 45 minutes on the stationary bike, but could not participate in the warm-up.
"Right now, he's still very very doubtful for the ACC tournament," Krzyzewski said.
In the locker room after the game, however, Dunleavy said he felt good and estimated his own chances at playing in the ACCs at "better than 50-50." Regardless, Dunleavy will be tested again tomorrow and his situation will be re-assessed.
For now, however, the Blue Devils were just happy to pull through a quality win.
"A win against Carolina is a win against Carolina," Battier said. "For the sake of my mom and dad, who have coronaries every time we play them, it's nice to have a comfortable win."
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