Mike Bell had lost a contact lens earlier in his match against North Carolina’s Danny Lopes, but he didn’t need 20-20 vision to score Duke’s best victory of the night.
The 141-pound senior pinned Lopes with 41 seconds remaining in the match, providing one of the lone bright spots for the Blue Devils (1-2, 0-1 in the ACC) in their 33-9 loss to the Tar Heels Tuesday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I was completely surprised because I had lost my contacts and I couldn’t see so hot already, and when [the referee] called it I thought it was potentially dangerous because of the way we were scrambling,” Bell said. “It looked like a weird situation but we actually do practice that type of position.... So when he tried to roll under my leg I turned my toe up, and turning your toe up keeps him from going back and forth. He made the mistake of trying to roll and I just kind of caught him.”
Bell’s victory provided Duke with six of its nine total team points, and he temporarily kept the Blue Devils in the match after they fell behind 12-0 due to forfeits at both the 125 and 133-pound weight classes.
Yet the Tar Heels (6-5, 1-1) quickly rallied and reeled off six consecutive victories, the first three of which were major decisions that each added four points to North Carolina’s overall score. Redshirt freshman Bret Klopp—ranked No. 32 in the nation at 174 pounds—tried to stop the bleeding against Thomas Ferguson. Klopp had registered a team-best 13 pins heading into the match, but he failed to mount an effective attack against Ferguson, and it was clear the match would go the distance.
Klopp trailed 8-4 heading into the final period and never managed to close the gap, ultimately dropping his first dual match of the season by a score of 9-4.
“We weren’t very aggressive,” Bell said of Duke’s performance on the night. “We went out and we wrestled Davidson [on the road] last week, and our guys were just machines, they were tearing people’s heads off, and tonight UNC took the first shot on us every single match.”
The lack of aggression continued at 184 pounds, where redshirt sophomore Diego Bencomo narrowly lost to No. 28 Antonio Giorgio 7-5. Bencomo owns 16 wins on the season, second-most on the team, yet Giorgio gave him all he could handle. Bencomo trailed 6-3 in the third period and had yet to make a strong move against Giorgio, but he finally took a shot with only 13 seconds left in the match. Bencomo could not put Giorgio on his back, however, and only came away with a two-point takedown as time expired—not enough for the victory.
Redshirt sophomore Andrew Fulk gave the Blue Devils their second and final win of the night at the heavyweight spot, but the three-point decision over Ben Brooks was not nearly enough to close the overall 27-point gap in team scores.
“Overall they fought really hard,” Duke head coach Clar Anderson said. “Technically we probably wrestled to what [North Carolina] anticipated, but it’s obviously disappointing.”
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