DURHAM — If you had walked into Duke’s Brodie Recreation Center on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 26, you would've seen what looked like a typical pickup basketball game.
But it wasn’t just any game. Eight members of The Daily Tar Heel sports desk traveled out to Durham for The Battle of the Blues: Newspaper Edition as they faced off against more than 20 members of the Duke Chronicle.
Yes, the game was fueled primarily by deciding which college has the better newspaper. But the two are also competing to see who can raise the most money ahead of the first UNC-Duke men’s basketball game of the season, and who can put out the better rivalry edition.
“We kick their ass with our sports coverage,” senior writer Parth Upadhyaya said. “Why not kick their ass on the court, too?”
The DTH sports desk overwhelmed the Chronicle, winning three games to one in a best of five series on the road.
“You could feel the tension from the rivalry matchup,” sophomore assistant editor Matt Chilson said. “We came into the game very confident, and I think they could kind of tell from the beginning that we were confident. That was really the difference in the first two games.
“We thought we were going to win, and I don’t know if they really felt the same way.”
Game 1 was the only one close out of the 4 that the journalists played, but the DTH was still able to set the tone. Early on, Chapel Fowler, a senior and self-described "discount Nikola Jokić," got under the basket early in the first game. He quickly dumped the ball off to fellow senior Matthew Audilet, a forward on the UNC club basketball team, who caught the pass and dunked easily.