Blue Devils sneak by UNC

With 6:27 left in Duke's Wednesday night battle with archrival North Carolina, Chris Duhon and Dahntay Jones took the floor following a media timeout and looked up at the scoreboard. Tie ballgame: 61-61.

Jones had one thought running through his mind: "It's winning time."

The two Blue Devils veterans responded with an outstanding display of crunchtime leadership, combining to score 12 straight points and propelling Duke (15-3, 5-3 in the ACC) to a 75-68 advantage, a lead it would not relinquish while holding on for an 83-74 victory.

"Those are the things that veterans [do] - you want the ball in their hands," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We tried to call their numbers and they responded. They made huge plays."

Much maligned for his self-admittedly sub-par play in recent weeks, Duhon found out Tuesday that Daniel Ewing would replace him in the starting lineup. Although held scoreless in his 17 minutes of first-half playing time, Duhon responded with 12 second-half points, including seven before the half's first media timeout. He also finished with 10 assists.

"Chris's performance was phenomenal tonight," Ewing said. "When the coaches told him he wasn't going to start this game, he didn't get down. He actually played better."

Jones, who finished with 23 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, carried the Blue Devil scoring load expertly. The senior turned the ball over only once, and struck from all angles and distances.

"This is a big game and I wanted to be there for my team," Jones said. "I was prepared to play defense and not even score tonight."

"To come into a place like this and make a spectacular play like that, it takes the crowd out of the game for awhile," Noel said. "We just had to build on spectacular plays. We have a lot of guys on this team that can make plays like that."

Although very young - Noel and Felton are both freshman while Williams is a sophomore - North Carolina refused to wilt in the second half, responding to every Duke run until the late-game heroics of Duhon and Jones proved too much to fight through.

Felton, the Naismith 2002 high school player of the year, practically carried the Tar Heels on his back for much of the second half, driving at will against any Duke defender he pleased. The 6-0 point guard poured in a game-high 25 points and drew so many fouls on his way to the basket, that had NBA rules of continuation been in place, he would have finished with a total well into the 30s.

"I feel that nobody can stay in front of me - I just have that confidence in my ball-handling skills," Felton said. "I'm not cocky. I just have confidence that I can get by anybody."

Felton, Noel and Williams could only do so much, however. The Tar Heels' lack of height hurt them - Duke finished with a 43-32 rebounding edge - and they simply couldn't maintain their torrid first half, when they shot a collective 61.5 percent from the field, including 6-of-9 from long distance.

The Tar Heels' tenacity and athleticism drew admiration from Krzyzewski, as did the way in which the two historic rivals fought one another in game that was back-and-forth until the very end.

"This was a great night for the ACC and for Duke-North Carolina," he said. "I know they have to be very disappointed - with that type of effort - not coming up on the winning side. But it was an honor to be in this game. This was a really good basketball game, one of the better ones I've been in."