Defense!
Defense!
Defense!
You get the gist. Duke used a rock-ribbed defense to defeat North Carolina 63-57 Saturday evening to run its record to 17-6, 8-4 in the ACC.
The loss drops the Tar Heels to15-8, 17-5.
The Blue Devils scored the game’s final six points, with captain Jeremy Roach making a huge play in the final seconds; more on that later.
Duke did an awful lot well on defense. The Blue Devils turned the visitors into a half-court, jump-shooting team. Carolina went to the foul line three times, none in the second half.
Duke was 11 for 15 from the line.
Hubert Davis was very much unhappy with that aspect of the game.
But Jon Scheyer said it was no accident.
“Just making them earn it. I was proud of our guys for not being handsy and being physical without fouling.”
Equally stunning was Duke holding North Carolina to one fast-break basket. This against a team that historically scores in transition in great gulps of blow-by layups.
“We got to the boards so hard, it’s prevented teams from pushing all the time against us,” Scheyer said. “But just emphasizing it, working on it, trying to take away easy baskets. I thought we really limited them and that was a big key to the win.”
The anchor of this defensive effort was freshman center Dereck Lively II. Lively played a career-best 34 minutes, blocked eight shots, grabbed 14 rebounds and convinced more than a few Carolina dribblers that their best option was going somewhere, anywhere else.
“Just trying to stay hungry,” Lively said “just trying to stay starving, make sure people don’t try to punk me, that people just respect me. I haven’t been able to be as offensive-driven as every other player here but I’ve got my own way to help this team.”
“Dereck Lively just changed the game,” Scheyer said. “I’m not surprised because he’s worked so incredibly hard. It’s a credit to what makes Dereck so special. He’s all about the team, he’s all about winning.”
Duke seemed tight at the beginning and fell behind 5-0, 7-2, 19-12 and 24-17. But the Tar Heels got stuck on 24 points for 4:07 and Duke had a lot to do with that. Duke forced some turnovers, controlled their defensive boards and took their first lead at 25-24 on a Roach layup.
Game on. After this neither team led by more than six points.
Duke led 33-32 at the half.
The Blue Devils extended that lead to six at 41-35 and had the ball. But this time Carolina made the brief run. A Caleb Love layup put the visitors up 45-44 with 11:23 left and an R.J. Davis 3-pointer gave them their final lead, 50-49, with 9:14 left.
But the Tar Heels would score seven points over that final 9:14.
“I think coach Carrawell have us a good game plan,” Mark Mitchell said “and we came out here and executed it. We know they’re talented but we came together with our size and athleticism.”
Lively had dominated the game on defense but down the stretch he started asserting himself on offense. He converted an offensive rebound to put Duke up 51-50 and another one to put Duke up 59-57, with 1:35 left.
“I work in the gym every day,” Lively said. “I try to lift every day.”
And of course he did this against Armando Bacot, Carolina’s senior All-America candidate.
Bacot had 12 points and seven rebounds in the first half, but two points and three rebounds after intermission.
How did that happen?
“Just trying to be able to stay down,” Lively said, “to stay strong and don’t let him get the position he wants.”
Down 59-57 Carolina’s Leaky Black had a wide-open 3-pointer with just over a minute left. Black has already knocked down three triples. But he game into the game shooting 28% from beyond the arc and he regressed to the mean.
Kyle Filipowski grabbed the rebound. Duke burned some clock, Filipowski missed but grabbed his miss and Duke called timeout with 35 seconds left, 16 on the shot clock, the game on the line.
Roach just teed it up, drove into the teeth of the Carolina defense and finished with his left hand.
“It was a ball screen between me and Flip,” Roach said. “I told him to slip it and we knew they would mess up on the screen and they did and two guys went with Flip and I got an easy lane.”
Scheyer said the key was to make be careful with the ball and make sure the ball was in the right people's hands.
That is, Jeremy Roach.
Pete Nance missed a 3 for the Heels--he was 1 for 10 on the night, 0 for 5 on 3s. Roach finished it out from the foul line, the final two of his game-high 20 points.
Filipowski added 14 points and seven rebounds, Tyrese Proctor 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Bacot (14), Black (13), Love (12) and Davis (11) scored in double figures for Carolina but Love and Davis combined for 10 for 31 from the field, 3 for 12 on 3s, as Carolina hit only 7 of 27 from beyond the arc.
And Duke outrebounded Carolina 46-40.
A quick turnaround. Miami Monday night on the road with a regular-season title suddenly back on the menu in a chaotic ACC season. Scheyer said he thinks his team has learned from that Saturday/Monday turnaround. And Dariq Whitehead had “some stiffness” in practice last week, so read into that what you will.
But right now it’s a big win over the biggest rival and and a young team that seems to be trending upwards.