It wasn't the Senior Night that the Class of 2006-a group that has won 111 games over four years-wanted to end its home career with.
An 11-0 North Carolina second-half run that put the No. 13 Tar Heels (21-6, 12-4 in the ACC) ahead, 70-59, proved too much for the top-ranked Blue Devils (27-3, 14-2) to overcome, as J.J. Redick, Shelden Williams and the four other seniors lost their regular-season finale, 83-76, Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"We played very hard out there, and to come up short tonight against Carolina in this game is very hard to swallow," sophomore DeMarcus Nelson said. "It makes it even harder because you put so much effort into it to win this game for the seniors and to end our last game at home on a positive note. It's a bad feeling we have to leave home with."
It was the second-straight loss for Duke, which began the conference schedule 14-0 and had wrapped up the regular-season title with a win over Georgia Tech Feb. 22. Still, with the Cameron Crazies out in full force to honor the team's six seniors, and ESPN broadcasting the game on nearly all of its channels, the hype around the game that paired the ACC's top two teams was bigger than any other Duke game this season.
"There's going to be other big games," head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "This is a big game because it's Duke and North Carolina. It wasn't big because of what it would do in the standings or anything else. We are going to be in games now that mean that, and we can't do this."
With 9:17 left in the contest, Reyshawn Terry banked in a spinning jump shot that put the Tar Heels ahead two, 61-59. Over the next three and a half minutes, North Carolina appeared nearly unstoppable.
Freshman Tyler Hansbrough, who scored a game-high 27 points, faked to get Williams in the air and maneuvered around him for a layin. Then Byron Sanders took a Quentin Thomas pass along the baseline for a layup, which he followed up with another easy bucket off a Redick missed three-pointer.
After a Blue Devil timeout, North Carolina tacked on three more points to increase its lead to 11 points, 70-59.
"I think I'm confident," UNC head coach Roy Williams said. "I hope it's not over the edge of cockiness, but I felt like we were the only team in the country that could come in here and win this game, and I believed we could if we played. We couldn't come in here and win unless we played our best game."
As has become expected in the historic Duke-Carolina rivalry, the game was far from over, however.
Trailing 77-66 with just 2:32 remaining, the Blue Devils hurried down the court and found Nelson in the left corner for a three-pointer. Shelden Williams blocked a Bobby Frasor shot at the defensive end that led to a Lee Melchionni basket. Then Nelson hit another three-pointer, bringing the game within three and sending the Cameron Crazies into an absolute frenzy.
"We put ourselves in that position by being stupid," Roy Williams said. "I told Bobby after the game, 'You've got to be a little more intelligent.' He's not the biggest jumper I've ever seen, and the guy's trying to lay it up over the leading shot-blocker in America, and that's not very smart. Reyshawn's shot from over there-I had no idea what on God's earth would get someone to shoot that ball. He did tell me I did a good job by taking his rear-end out, and I told him, 'Thank you.' I appreciated his approval."
After Nelson stole the ball from Frasor, Dockery had the chance to close the game to within one. His drive to the basket, though, came up empty, and with 24 seconds left, Duke had no choice but to foul.
North Carolina's freshmen, which had come up big all game long, weathered the storm and calmly sank free throws down the stretch to secure the upset.
"Those kids are tough kids, they're competitive kids," Roy Williams said of his crop of freshmen, who outscored Duke's seniors 55-51. "They were raised in athletic households. They've heard the word focus; they've heard the word poise; they've heard the word toughness. And I think they did it."
Duke allowed the Tar Heels to shoot 44.1 percent for the game and failed to execute on the defensive end for the fourth straight game, Krzyzewski said.
"We didn't keep up the intensity defensively," Krzyzewski said. "We're not playing defense like we should. We do it in spurts, and you can't beat good teams that way."
Williams recorded his 17th double-double of the season, notching 18 points and 15 rebounds to go along with six blocks. Melchionni chipped in 13 points, as well, in what Krzyzewski called his best game in more than a month.
But Redick struggled from the field again. Despite making four of his first five shots, the senior finished the game with just 18 points and was 1-for-16 from the field the rest of the way.
"We're probably not going to beat a good team with J.J. going 5-for-21," Krzyzewski said. "You are who you are, and we're 27-3 because of using that. When it's taken away or when he's human, it makes it more difficult."
Although the Duke seniors thanked the Cameron Crazies in a subdued ceremony after the game for four outstanding years, they wished they could have ended their career in Cameron on a better note. What had started as a great night during senior introductions, ended with a somber locker room and little celebration.
"It's not bad to hurt," Krzyzewski said. "That's one of the great things about sport. Sometimes you don't learn things until you're hurt. We got hurt tonight. Let's see what we do with it."
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