Duke basketball trailed for the entire first half against North Carolina. It was ugly, with 11 turnovers and just one 3-pointer.
But the Blue Devils rallied to beat the Tar Heels 73-68 last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Here are the stories you should make sure to read from last night's Tobacco Road showdown:
- Tyler Thornton may be the forgotten man in Duke's rotation, but as Coach K said, he plays "angry." That anger sparked Duke's comeback as Thornton made a number of key plays to ignite Duke's second-half rally:
Mike Krzyzewski said he thinks Tyler Thornton will be a coach one day, but there’s one other thing he sees in common between himself and Duke’s junior guard.“I like him because he can get angry. I don’t think players get angry like they used to,” Krzyzewski said. “That comes easy for me.”
Trailing by as many as 10 in the first half to North Carolina (16-8, 6-5 in the ACC), the No. 2 Blue Devils (22-2, 9-2) needed somebody to get angry.
Thornton was that man, sparking Duke’s rally past the Tar Heels en route to a 73-68 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday night.
Although Thornton is often the forgotten man coming off the bench in Duke’s backcourt, he is no stranger to the spotlight. Last season, he hit a game-clinching 3-pointer in Hawaii to beat then-No. 14 Kansas at the Maui Invitational.
- The first half was ugly for the Blue Devils, but Mason Plumlee helped turn it around. Despite battling foul trouble, Plumlee—after turning it over four times in the first half—didn't cough it up once in the final 20 minutes and finished with another double-double:
Although the foul trouble plagued him throughout the game—Plumlee came back to lead Duke with 11 rebounds and tied sophomore guard Quinn Cook with 18 points, recording another double-double to follow up on his performance Sunday at Boston College.“We made some dumb fouls and got ourselves in a lot of foul trouble,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We’ve turned it over more than we have the entire year.”
Twelve of the Tar Heels’ 33 first-half points came off turnovers as Duke struggled to generate any offensive rhythm.
While Plumlee played more than any other Blue Devil during the first half, notching 19 minutes on the court, he epitomized the team’s offensive struggles. In addition to the first-half turnovers, he finished the period going 3-for-8 from the field—including a miss on the game’s first possession, an ugly attempt that set the tone for Duke’s first-half struggles.
“[The Tar Heels] were getting out running—they really pushed the ball... and they got some easy open looks and some dunks, but we made the adjustment,” Plumlee said.
And here is your postgame video breakdown:
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