Duke 73, North Carolina 68 (FINAL): P.J. Hairston goes in for a final shot, bringing the final score to 73-68.
Duke 73, North Carolina 66 (0:05.5 second half):Carolina fouls Cook right off the bar, and Cook hits both free throws, making a seven-point spread. The Crazies are chanting "Our house" as the game approaches its final 10 seconds.
P.J. Hairston sinks both free throws, bringing the game up to 71-66. With five seconds left, Cook heads to the line, making both shots.
Carolina calls a time out with 5.8 seconds left.
Duke 69, North Carolina 64 (0:18.8 second half): In the closing moments of the rivalry match, Carolina is stepping up its defense. Sulaimon is perfect with his free throws.
Four of the players in Duke's lineup right now have four fouls going into the final 30 seconds. The Cameron Crazies are making the court shake with their cheering as P.J. Hairston stepped up to the line—going 1-for-two on his shots.
Plumlee bests him by making both free throws, bringing him up to 6-8.
Duke 65, North Carolina 61 (1:14 second half): As the shot clock runs out, Curry accidentally passes to the Tar Heels. Strickland goes two-for-two on the line.
Duke 65, North Carolina 59 (1:30 second half): Curry comes off the break with a perfect two-for-two on free throws.
Plumlee got close to fouling out of the game when P.J. Hairston tried to take charge, but the refs called it a block. Plumlee hit both free throws, bringing the Blue Devils up by eight points.
Sulaimon is also up to his fourth foul—making three of the players in rotation with four fouls each.
Plumlee swats the ball away from Carolina, as Cook brings the ball up the court. With 1:30 to go, Carolina is getting desperate.
Duke 61, North Carolina 55 (3:16 second half): Plumlee gets the rebound off McAdoo's failed free-throw attempt. Curry secures his second three-pointer, bringing the score up 59-53.
Plumlee and Curry both have four fouls now. Tar Heel McAdoo continues to struggle with his free throws, going 1-5.
With Plumlee back in the contest, he brings Duke back 61-55.
Duke 56, North Carolina 51 (6:01 second half): Mason Plumlee is up to his fourth foul of the night—and Carolina's Reggie Bullock has brought the score to 54-51 in favor of the Blue Devils.
Sulaimon continues to star on the offense, with another layup. He is now 5-11 on field goals.
Duke 52, North Carolina 47 (8:13 second half): With ugly possessions on both sides after the break, Duke still leads. The sloppy start trailed on for both, with no scores by the next time out.
Duke 52, North Carolina 47 (10:12 second half): Thornton is a perfect three-for-three beyond the arc, making up nearly all of Duke's three-pointers. The Blue Devils are up to 10 rebounds this half, and have gone 60 percent on field goals.
Duke 47, North Carolina 43 (13:08 second half): Sulaimon comes off the break with a layup, bringing the score to 38-37.
Some tricky offense by Duke leads to another field goal by Hairston this time, followed by increasingly better Blue Devil defense. The Cameron Crazies are nearly deafening as Duke takes the lead 42-41.
The Blue Devils have really improved their game, with Sulaimon nailing a three-pointer as they go into another time out.
Duke 35, North Carolina 38 (15:37 second half): Cook knocked the ball away, getting Coach K pumped up and flailing his arms about. Curry goes 1-2 on free throws, bringing the score up to 38-32.
Thornton follows with a three-pointer—and has scored only two that Duke has so far.
North Carolina's Leslie McDonald airballs a three-pointer, causing the Crazies to chant "air ball" in unison.
Duke 31, North Carolina 38 (17:39 second half): Starting off the second half for the Blue Devils are Cook, Curry, Jefferson, Plumlee and Sulaimon.
North Carolina's McAdoo was the first to score in the half, going 1-2 on his free throws. Duke's offense looks much cleaner than before the break, with Curry assisting Cook for an easy lay-up.
Duke is really struggling with the few chances it has taken behind the arc, going 1-5. The Blue Devils also already have four fouls going into the time out.
Duke 29, North Carolina 33 (halftime): Curry is back in after working with a trainer on his shows—it's unclear what the problem was.
Cook leads the Blue Devils in scoring with 10 points so far, but Jefferson has still been put into the rotation.
Despite being sloppy on the offense, Plumlee redeemed himself, bringing the score up 33-29. Carolina's Bullock tried for a three-pointer at the buzzer, but was unable to succeed.
The Blue Devils and Tar Heels are nearly matched in rebounds and field goal percentages, with 38.7 percent and 41.9 percent, respectively, but they are slacking on points off of turnovers. North Carolina has 12 to Duke's six.
Duke 25, North Carolina 30 (3:50 first half): Duke's defense pushed a turnover, leading into a field goal by Curry. Marshall Plumlee has switched in for Mason, who has gone 2-6 in scoring so far.
Duke is making a comeback on the offense, with 9 rebounds so far. Both teams are tied with seven fouls each so far.
Duke 18, North Carolina 28 (6:40 first half): Curry and Sulaimon came back into the game for Murphy and Thornton, but the Blue Devils have continued to struggle with their defense. Duke has been 8-25 in field goals.
Duke 18, North Carolina 23 (7:23 first half): Duke's freshmen are stepping it up, with a steal by Jefferson off the time out. The Blue Devils, however, have still been struggling in the paint, going 6-19 in field goals by 9:53.
Cook sped past the lingering Tar Heels around 7:50, making up for Duke's sloppy offense.
Curry and Cook both have two fouls early in the game—the Blue Devils are going to have to clean up their offense and keep up with the speed of the game if they want to come out on top.
Duke 14, North Carolina 17 (11:10 first half): Coming off of media timeout, Carolina's Hairston and McAdoo brought the score up to 13-8 after more ugly Blue Devil turnovers.
Duke has been playing sloppy in the paint, failing to score numerous times before Mason Plumlee went two-for-two on his free throws.
Jefferson currently leads the Blue Devils with four rebounds.
Duke 6, North Carolina 9 (15:21 first half): This highly-anticipated rivalry match has gotten off to a rough start, with an ugly turnover from Duke's Josh Hairston to give the Tar Heels their first field goal of the night.
The Blue Devils continued to give the Tar Heels hope with three turnovers by 17:13. Sulaimon took a charge, leading into our first time out of the evening.
Starters
Duke: Quinn Cook, Mason Plumlee, Rasheed Sulaimon, Josh Hairston and Seth Curry
North Carolina: Dexter Strickland, Marcus Paige, P.J. Hairston, Reggie Bullock and James Michael McAdoo
Follow along with Duke basketball for live updates and here for analysis in this ACC contest.
Pregame notes:
- This is only Tar Heel P.J. Hairston's second career start.
- The Blue Devil's headband says "UNConditionally bad!"
- This is the 235th meeting between the two programs.
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