CHAPEL HILL - There was no way the Blue Devils should have beaten North Carolina Tuesday night. Duke was playing its third game in six days, and the Smith Center was rocking for most of the second half.
But somehow, even though the team blew a 17-point second-half lead and trailed by five with 4:33 to play, No. 2 Duke pulled out an 87-83 win over the No. 23 Tar Heels.
"When we lost the lead, I think we showed the spirit that I had sensed in this team throughout the year," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We just had a good spirit-a spirit that we're going to win-and we kept our poise and hit some big shots."
Spirit was not the only thing the Blue Devils (22-1, 10-0 in the ACC) had going for them-they also had J.J. Redick.
The senior guard was spectacular when his team needed him most, draining three critical three-pointers in the final four and a half minutes. The last trifecta-on a behind-the-back stepback move-came with 56 seconds left and gave Duke an 84-77 advantage. It provided the last of Redick's game-high 35 points on the night.
After the game, Blue Devil guard Sean Dockery said even when Duke trailed, he never doubted his team because, "you know, we've got J.J. Redick."
But even after Redick's late-game heroics, the contest was far from over. The Tar Heels (14-6, 5-4) made two baskets-with a pair of missed free throws by Dockery sandwiched in between-to cut the lead to three with 41 seconds to play.
Duke inbounded the ball to Redick, but he airmailed his pass over point guard Greg Paulus' head and out of bounds on what appeared to be a communication error between the two players. Tar Heel point guard Bobby Frasor then quickly scored on a floater in the lane to make the score 84-83 with 33 ticks left.
On Duke's next possession, Paulus was trapped in the backcourt as he attempted to break the Tar Heels' full-court pressure and was forced to call a timeout. After the stoppage, McRoberts inbounded to Redick, who had the ball knocked out of his hands.
UNC freshman Marcus Ginyard tried to save the ball from going out of bounds, but it went straight to Paulus, who was fouled. The freshman point guard calmly made his two free throws in front of the crazed sellout crowd, giving the Blue Devils a three-point advantage with 18.5 seconds to play.
On the Tar Heels' ensuing possession, freshman Danny Green passed up an open look at a three-pointer that would have tied it and inexplicably chose to drive the ball to the basket. He missed the shot, and Shelden Williams' rebound sealed the win.
"You play five more minutes, they may beat us," Krzyzewski said. "That's the kind of game it was."
It was close at the end, but at the beginning of the second half, the Blue Devils looked ready to run away with the game. Duke scored 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting before North Carolina even attempted a second-half shot. Freshman forward Josh McRoberts, playing with two fouls, nailed a three-pointer and threw down a highlight-reel reverse alley-oop during the spurt.
With 16:52 to play, McRoberts picked up his third foul, and during the stoppage, Tar Heel head coach Roy Williams subbed out all five of his starters.
"I didn't care [how well it worked],"
Williams said. "I was so mad at [the starters], I just wanted to do something so I wasn't charged with assault. We could've lost by 5,000 and it wouldn't have made any difference-I was keeping them in there for a while. If you are going to play for us, you are going to compete."
The reserves came in and immediately made a difference. With Williams hollering at his starting team on the bench, Quentin Thomas scored the Tar Heels' first points of the half on a drive to the basket. Shelden Williams converted on Duke's next trip down the court, but the Blue Devils would not score again for nearly five minutes.
During that time, North Carolina clawed its way back into the game, grabbing four offensive rebounds and scoring 12 points to cut Duke's lead to five, 54-49.
The Tar Heels' dominance on the offensive glass hurt Duke all night. They outrebounded the Blue Devils, 45-26, and grabbed 22 offensive boards. Freshman forward Tyler Hansbrough grabbed six of those offensive rebounds and finished with 14 points.
"Nothing ever surprises me about our rebounding," Krzyzewski said. "When we were in foul trouble, we weren't aggressive in blocking out, and that aggressiveness by [David] Noel, [Reyshawn] Terry, Hansbrough-that knocked us back there."
Duke finally broke its scoring drought with a basket by Redick that made the score 56-49. The Tar Heels answered back with a two-pointer by Frasor before Redick's three-pointer and transition layup pushed the Blue Devils' lead back to 10.
But North Carolina responded with a 10-0 run, eventually tying the game at 61 on a three-pointer by Thomas. Another three-pointer, this one by Noel, gave the Tar Heels a 64-63 advantage, their first lead since the score was 5-4.
A minute and a half later, Duke trailed by five, and the stage was set for Redick to take over the game.
NOTES:
Redick's 35 points were the most ever by a Duke player in a game at North Carolina. Bob Verga and Johnny Dawkins shared the previous record with 34 points.... Redick passed Gonzaga's Adam Morrison as the nation's leading scorer. He improved his average to 28.4 points per game, slightly ahead of Morrison.... Redick has now scored 2,459 career points, just one point behind the Blue Devils' Christian Laettner for second place in Blue Devil history.... Raymond Felton, Sean May, Jackie Manuel and Damion Grant-all members of UNC's National Championship squad from last season-attended the game.
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