Tar Heels start fast, fall short

DURHAM — It was as if it was too good to be true for North Carolina. After all, an unranked UNC team hadn’t beaten Duke on its own turf since before each and every member of Roy Williams’ current team was born.

But still, North Carolina — which eventually fell to the No. 2 Blue Devils 73-68 — held tightly to a lead for the entire first half.

When the Tar Heels trotted into the locker room at intermission on top, the chants and jeers from the densely packed home crowd proved that it couldn’t quite believe what was going on.

But Marcus Paige could.

“We weren’t surprised,” he said. “It’s easy to get up for a rivalry game.

“But at the same time, we knew we had to sustain it because we knew a run was going to come.”

And like clockwork, it did.

The Blue Devils, ranked sixth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage, went 1-for-4 in the first half from deep. The Tar Heels, with help from Reggie Bullock’s three first-half deep buckets, were beating Duke at its own game.

It was UNC’s plan to come out strong in the first half, and that’s exactly what it did. But when the Tar Heels let Duke take its first lead of the game with 14:11 to go, they lost the swagger they so confidently displayed in the game’s early going.

Down by just five with 11 and a half minutes to go, the Tar Heels took desperation jumper after desperation jumper to try to get back in the game, missing five straight shots in a three-minute span.

Bullock admitted that his team’s urgency to dig its way out of the newfound hole caused it to lapse defensively, allowing wide-open Blue Devil shots.

Duke, reverting back to the 3-point shooting team it was known for being, sunk five deep buckets in the second half as it drove the nail into UNC’s coffin.

In the final five minutes, it was consistently a six-or eight-point game. The Tar Heels, however, wasted their chances to close the gap, with James Michael McAdoo and Bullock missing seven free throw shots total between them.

“I think it would have been a totally different outcome of the game (if we made them),” Bullock said. “I missed two, and that’s just something I have to work on … It’s two that I missed that I usually don’t miss.”

Duke never led by more than eight, and unlike it did in its previous game against Miami, UNC didn’t show up flat. Williams doesn’t like to sugarcoat losses, but he was impressed by his team’s fight.

“I’m not into moral victories and I told them that in the locker room,” Williams said. “But I am pleased with the effort they gave.”

Paige was one of the biggest culprits in taking poor shots late in the game, finishing 2-for-9 from the floor. Still, he took away something positive from the close loss.

“We saw what we’re capable of when we do play hard,” he said. “When we just bring our effort and play as hard as we can, that’s the team you saw in the first half, and that’s the team that can be really dangerous.”

For UNC against Goliath, the game began with a feeling that it might’ve been too good to be true. In the end, that’s exactly what it was.

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.