CHAPEL HILL - Not too long ago, North Carolina was considered the runaway favorite to win the ACC.

But after an 89-78 victory over its archrival at the Smith Center on Wednesday, No. 2 Duke now appears to have the best shot -- in more ways than one.

Draining 13 3-pointers and consistently attacking UNC's power players, the Devils (20-1, 8-0 in the ACC) broke a three-game losing streak against the Tar Heels and pushed themselves two games ahead of No. 3 UNC (21-2, 6-2) in the league standings.

Asked if he felt like his team was on the road to something special, coach Mike Krzyzewski said: "I think they're pretty special right now."

They looked it from the outset -- shrugging off the boos to wing Gerald Henderson (whose flying forearm broke UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough's nose last March), swishing 44.8 percent of their 3-pointers, getting a performance from forward Lance Thomas (10 points, five rebounds) that Krzyzewski called the sophomore's "best game."

Carolina, meanwhile, might have had a chance to win without point guard Ty Lawson -- who sat out because of a sprained left ankle -- but not with sub-par performances from shooting guard Wayne Ellington (eight points, 3-for-14 shooting) and sixth man Danny Green (three points, 1-for-10), as well.

"It was an easy decision,'' coach Roy Williams said of the choice, made about 15 minutes before tipoff, not to play the Lawson. "I told him if we had doubts about it I wasn't going to play him. I asked and he said, 'I don't know' and the decision was that I wasn't going to play him. He came to me and said, 'I don't know,' and he said he didn't feel good. So I said he wasn't going to play."

Without the team's third-leading scorer and top assist man, senior point guard Quentin Thomas made his first start since the first game of his freshman year.

And as expected, forwards Tyler Hansbrough and power forward Deon Thompson led UNC's offense early, taking advantage of their size advantage against the perimeter-oriented Devils. With the Tar Heels leading 18-13, however, Duke countered with a 14-2 run by doing one of the things it does best: hitting its outside shots. The Devils made four 3-pointers during that span -- including two from sixth man Jon Scheyer -- to take a 27-20 advantage. And it got its largest lead of the half, 42-31, when point guard Greg Paulus made a 3-pointer with about four minutes left.

"They got any shot they wanted,'' Williams said. "I don't know very many times tonight our defense dictated what shot they got."

Still, UNC had a weapon in its other Ty -- Tyler. The Heels, who shot 48.5 percent in the first 20 minutes, finished the half with an 8-0 run to cut their deficit to 42-39; Hansbrough had six of those points.

UNC cut its deficit on one point twice early in the second half, and then to 53-51 with 16:16 left after Ellington scored on a tip, and Duke's DeMarcus Nelson left the game with his fourth foul. But the Tar Heels didn't score again until a Ginyard transition bucket with 11:29 left -- allowing Duke to build a 58-51 advantage while UNC turned the ball over six times.

With Thomas and forward Kyle Singler (14 points, 10 rebounds) doubling Hansbrough, the two-time All-America didn't score his first field goal of the second half until 10:17 left, cutting UNC's deficit to 62-55. Later, Green scored his first field goal of the game 54 seconds left, cutting his team's deficit to 83-78.

But Duke finished the game strong. And UNC got no closer in what turned out to be a surprisingly lop-sided duel.

"Our focus has been on winning games whoever we play, but we can't relax," Scheyer said about Duke's lead in the ACC. "I think for [UNC] to be in the position [of a favorite] was fine with us. No one has really been talking about us and, really, that's completely fine with us, too."

Paulus led Duke with 18 points, while five of his teammates finished in double figures.

Hansbrough led all players with 28 points and 18 rebounds; Marcus Ginyard chipped in 16 points for UNC.

It is unclear when Lawson will be healthy enough to return, but Williams said all of his players need to concentrate on doing the "little things" better -- shooting, rebounding, defense -- for it to be a more disciplined team like Duke.

"I told the team yesterday that if we won today, they weren't going to give us a trophy and stop the season,'' Williams said. "And if they won the game, they weren't going to stop the season and give them a trophy, as well. A lot more games to play, but we've got to play a heck of a lot better and decide to do the little things."