UNC goes wire to wire against Duke. 3 takeaways from Tar Heels’ win over Blue Devils
North Carolina’s Cormac Ryan singed Duke early and quieted the Cameron Crazies late to leave the No. 7 Tar Heels as the ACC’s top team.
The graduate transfer from Notre Dame made six 3-pointers while scoring 31 points, leading UNC past No. 9 Duke, 84-79, in ACC basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night.
The win gives the Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3) the outright ACC regular-season championship and the top seed for the ACC Tournament, which begins Tuesday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Duke (24-7, 15-5 ACC) needed a win to catch UNC in the standings and share the title. Instead, the Blue Devils are the No. 2 ACC Tournament seed after being swept by UNC in their two regular-season games.
The Tar Heels shot 50% from the field, while making 7 of 15 3-pointers (46.7%). Ryan accounted for most of that shooting, making 8 of 12 shots overall with 6-of-8 shooting on 3-pointers.
Ryan’s three early 3-pointers helped UNC build a 17-4 lead in the game’s early minutes. After Duke clawed back to within a point early in the second half and trailed 72-66, Ryan drilled a 3-pointer with 3:46 left and held a finger to his lips while staring at Duke’s quiet student section.
Kyle Filipowski, who led Duke with 23 points, answered Ryan’s 3-pointer to pull Duke within six points again. But Ryan struck again with 1:38 to play, drilling a 3-pointer and putting the Tar Heels ahead 78-69.
UNC held on from there, securing its first outright ACC regular-season title since 2017, which is also the last time the Tar Heels won an NCAA Tournament championship.
Harrison Ingram recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds for UNC.
Duke struggled from the field against UNC’s defense, hitting just 44.1% of its shots. The Blue Devils made 9 of 22 3-pointers, including 7 of 12 in the second half when they rallied before ultimately coming up short.
Jared McCain scored 19 points, Tyrese Proctor 14 and Jeremy Roach 13 for the Blue Devils.
Here are three takeaways from the game
Once again, UNC hit Duke hard from the start
The Tar Heels led for all but 16 seconds of the rivals first meeting of the season, back on Feb. 3 in Chapel Hill. In Saturday’s rematch UNC once again took control of the game early.
UNC scored the game’s first four points and, while making seven of its first nine shots, had a 17-4 lead before five minutes of the game had been played.
Ryan sizzled Duke with three 3-pointers during that opening sequence and the grad transfer guard from Notre Dame enjoyed yelling back to the Duke student section after swishing each of them.
The Tar Heels maintained their double-digit lead, building it to 27-12 and 30-15, until 5:13 remained until halftime. That’s when Jared McCain sank Duke’s first 3-pointer, cutting the UNC lead to 33-24.
Duke drew as close as seven points before UNC took a 40-31 halftime lead.
Duke finds its defense — for a while
After UNC hit 12 of its first 17 shots to lead by as many as 15 in the first half, Duke toughened up defensively to climb back into the game. The Tar Heels made only 5 of 17 shots the remaining of the first half as the Blue Devils did a better job preventing points in the paint.
The skid continued to 6 of 22 when UNC began the first half hitting just one of five shots. That allowed Duke to come back to trail by a point at 43-42.
But UNC found another gear from there, with Ryan leading the way.
Roach’s rough senior night
Playing what could be his final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Roach struggled to hit shots. The senior guard made just 3 of 12 shots, including 2 of 4 on 3-pointers. Roach entered the game averaging 14.3 points, having made 49.3% of hits shots overall and 44% of his 3-pointers.
Roach also turned the ball over twice against UNC.
Roach has the option of returning to play a fifth season due to the NCAA’s COVID-19 pandemic rules, but he’s not indicated whether he’ll do so.
This story was originally published March 9, 2024 at 8:52 PM.