Heels' youth prevails

Four UNC freshmen, led by Tyler Hansbrough's 27 points, outscore Duke's four seniors 55-51 in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Youth and speed were seven points better than experience and emotion on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The freshman-heavy squad of No. 13 North Carolina handed the senior-laden team of top-ranked Duke its second loss in as many games with an 83-76 victory in the ACC finale for both teams.

Tyler Hansbrough scored a game-high 27 points and added 10 rebounds as North Carolina's four freshmen outscored Duke's four seniors 55-51 in a game that again showed why ranking, statistics, age, beauty and credit rating mean nothing in college basketball's craziest rivalry.

"It is Cameron Indoor Stadium and everybody who is a college basketball fan is watching and it doesn't get much bigger," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "I have said all year long that those kids are tough kids and they are competitors."

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski agreed.

"Carolina played really hard and good defense, but we added to that," Krzyzewski said. "We have to learn from that because we'll be in other big games."

In this case, Carolina's steady hand on its emotions propelled the Heels forward while too much emotion did the Devils in.

The game had that sausage casing-tight feel as most any other Duke-Carolina game. The score was tied at 59 with 9:32 left in the game before Carolina took ownership of Coach K Court for the next four minutes.

In an 11-0 run from the 9:32 mark to the 5:44 mark, four different Heels scored to give UNC a 70-59 lead. Carolina led 77-66 with 2:43 left in the game before Duke took one last run at the Heels.

Here's what Duke's 51-second, eight-point flurry looked like: Nelson drained a 3-pointer. Duke's Shelden Williams blocked a shot by UNC's Bobby Frasor, then J.J. Redick missed a 3-pointer before Lee Melchionni grabbed the rebound and scored on the offensive glass. Then Melchionni swung a pass to Nelson for a second 3-pointer.

With 1:39 left in the game, UNC led 77-74.

Duke senior Sean Dockery tried to drive to the basket on the Blue Devils' next possession but missed his shot. Hansbrough rebounded Dockery's miss with 38 seconds left, but the Devils didn't foul Frasor until 15 seconds later.

After Williams scored inside with 17.5 seconds left to give him 18 points for the game, Duke did it again. The Devils couldn't foul Hansbrough to stop the clock for another seven seconds.

With the victory, UNC (21-6, 12-4 ACC) earns the No. 2 seed in next week's ACC Tournament and will go into Friday's game having won seven in a row and 10 of its past 11.

Carolina also leads the all-time series with Duke 125-96.

Early on, it looked like Redick would ride the white horse straight out of the building when he made four of his first five shots within the first 3:21.

That put Duke out to an early 13-2 lead, while the Tar Heels were going 1-for-10 from the field. But Redick couldn't keep up that pace. He made just one more shot the rest of the way.

In the second half, Redick, the nation's second-leading scorer, could not find the right shots or make the ones he did get. UNC's Marcus Ginyard made life especially difficult on Redick, who made just one of 10 shots after halftime for 18 points total.

"I wanted him to be looking at my face every time he caught the ball," Ginyard said. "[I wasn't] letting him create space, especially on the baseline. I was just trying to play behind him and follow him as hard as I could wherever he went."

Duke (27-3, 14-2) goes to Greensboro with a noticeable limp. Going 5-for-21 for the game, Redick has now shot 23-for-80 in his past four games.

With defenses catching up to Redick and Krzyzewski saying after the game that Duke hasn't played consistent defense since beating Miami on Feb. 19, Duke is in crisis mode.

"We're probably not going to beat a really good team with J.J. going 5-for-21. You are who you are," Krzyzewski said. "We're 27-3 because of using him. But when he's taken away or he's human, it makes it more difficult. We need other guys to step up."

The upside for the Devils was seeing Williams battle Hansbrough and foul trouble to finish with 18 points and 15 rebounds for his 17th double-double of the year. Duke also got 17 and 13 points, respectively, from Nelson and Melchionni.

Is it enough upside?

"It's a disappointment," Dockery said. "You always want to go out with a bang but you have to give it to Carolina. ... [Back-to-back] losses, you just have to learn from them. I know this team. We're a bunch of guys who care about each other ... so I'm not worried about it."