CHARLOTTE — A season-low 17 percent 3-point percentage led to the defeat of No. 5 seed North Carolina (22-13, 13-7 ACC) to top-seeded Duke (30-3, 19-1 ACC), 74-71, on Friday night in the ACC tournament semifinals.
Junior forward Ven-Allen Lubin’s 20 points and nine rebounds paced North Carolina all night, but his 3-pointer as time expired fell off the front rim and allowed Duke to escape UNC after leading by as many as 24 points.
Lubin opened the scoring for UNC with a pair of dunks. It was sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau who fed Lubin on both slams, the first via a smooth bounce pass under the basket and the second a lob over Duke’s 7-foot-2 center Khaman Maluach.
“My teammates continue to trust me and try to find me,” Lubin said. “Deep seals, and in the interior [I’m] just trying to make plays around the rim.”
Lubin continued to give North Carolina scoring during a slow shooting start, with two offensive rebounds leading to a putback and pair of free throws. On the other end, however, seven Duke scorers contributed offensively by the under-8 timeout and helped the Blue Devils to a double-figure lead midway through the first.
The Tar Heels missed their first seven 3-point attempts, and it wasn’t until Cadeau’s triple with five minutes left in the half before they ended the drought. Moments later, Cadeau picked up his third foul and sat for the remainder of the period.
The Blue Devils continued attacking North Carolina, drawing 10 fouls and tallying 15 free throws. This helped Duke to a 15-0 run to end the half, as its defense held UNC to zero points over the last five minutes.
The Tar Heels finished the half 1-10 from three and shot 36 percent from the floor. Duke led 45-24 at the half.
Lubin ended UNC’s scoring drought with another alley-oop dunk from Cadeau’s pass. But North Carolina’s cold shooting from deep persisted into the second half, as the Tar Heels missed their first five attempts to start the second half.