Duke won two of its first three bouts, but North Carolina took six of the next seven as the Tar Heels beat the Blue Devils 25-10 Wednesday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke's Voris Tejada and John Barone won consecutive matches at 174 and 184 pounds, respectively, before the Tar Heels reeled off five wins in a row.
Tejada took his match after six overtimes after escaping and holding on to the win in time advantage. Tejada and his opponent, Ben Fiacco, had wrestled to an overtime bout earlier this year.
"It's not the most exciting wrestling," head coach Clar Anderson said of Tejada's win. "It's a kind of chess match between them and Voris prevailed. He's very competitive and he got a great win."
Barone improved to 27-5 on the season with an 11-3 major decision over Daniel Llamas, giving Duke a 7-4 lead after the match's first three bouts. He now needs only three wins to break the 100-win mark.
"It was a nice win early to keep us in it," Anderson said. "We were a bit outmanned with a couple guys wrestling up a weight class later on in the match."
Dan Adamo won the last match on the night for Duke with a 9-4 victory over Jeremy Shaw. He took three points at the end of the second period, which capped a seven-point period to give Adamo his 13th win.
Duke heavyweight Konrad Dudziak, perhaps the team's best grappler, did not wrestle in the loss.
The Blue Devils return to the mat Jan. 24 in Cameron against Maryland, the defending league champion.
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