Zoubek, Ginyard on opposite sides of Senior Night

DURHAM — Duke's Saturday-night thrashing of North Carolina was a tale of two seniors.

On one hand, there was Duke's Brian Zoubek. The 7-footer from Haddonfield, N.J., hauled in 13 rebounds as Duke clobbered the Tar Heels on his Senior Night.

He went a perfect 4-for-4 from the field, and in the process, Zoubek helped exercise Duke of four years of losing to it's cross-town rivals.

"We'd been frustrated for a long time," Zoubek said. "When it's built up for four years you can't wait to take it out on them."

Zoubek's performance led Duke to a 37-28 edge in rebounding Saturday. It was the second time that Duke, once lacking an inside presence, out-rebounded UNC this season.

A team lauded for it's three-point shooting now has a dirt player, willing to set screens and rebound, in Zoubek.

"It's not going to be just three-point shooting," Duke coach Mike Kryzewski said. "We couldn't fall into that trap."

Zoubeck and fellow senior forward Lance Thomas combined for 19 rebounds — and eight offensive boards — to spark the dominant performance. Oftentimes Duke forwards tipped or passed out to open shooters on the perimeter.

"On the offensive end, they made threes," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "And when they missed, they got a rebound kicked it out and made another three."

On the other side of the equation, there was UNC's Marcus Ginyard. The fifth-year senior had willed UNC to wins in its last two games, including his first-ever double-double against Miami last week on his Senior Night.

He entered Saturday's contest with 35 rebounds in his last three games. But Ginyard spent the game in varying stages of frustration. While Zoubek and Duke's elder class was ending on a high note, Ginyard — the redshirt senior of the class which went 4-0 in Cameron between 2006 and 2009 — spent the game trying to continue to UNC's past success.

He pleaded with teammates. He tried gentle instruction. He tried screaming. Ginryard tried to drive and stumbled. He tried to rebound but couldn't get through the wall of Duke bodies around the basket.

As the buzzer sounded, the Blue Devils remained 30 points away, and Ginyard had exhausted what looked like every trick in his book. Ginyard and fellow senior Deon Thompson ended the game on the bench, staring in mute disbelief. Ginyard collected just five rebounds on the day, and six total points.

"Early in the game, they beat us to the boards," Ginyard said. "They didn’t allow us to get anything easy."