Duke takes down UNC, sweeps Tar Heels

By Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan

Duke Blue Devils	62
North Carolina Tar Heels	57
Final

Chapel Hill, N.C. — If North Carolina ended the rivalry with Duke last year with a pair of historic wins, the Blue Devils didn’t get the memo.

With 22 points from freshman forward Kyle Filipowski, Duke beat the Tar Heels 62-57 to sweep the regular season and put UNC’s NCAA tournament chances on the edge of the bubble.

It was UNC (19-12), with many of the same players who were on the court on Saturday night, who handed Duke a loss in legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game and his final game.

The latter was at the Final Four, which was the first time the rivals met in the NCAA tournament.

Some UNC fans argued the rivalry, which has produced the national champion nine times in the past 32 years, was over.

Instead, Duke (23-8) regrouped. Jon Scheyer replaced Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils brought in a new batch of highly-rated recruits, including Filipowski and guard Tyrese Proctor (13 points).

Senior forward Armando Bacot led UNC with 17 points but the Tar Heels shot 22 percent from the 3-point line.

Bacot, Caleb Love and R.J. Davis were at the heart of UNC’s late-season run in 2022, which included a 94-81 win at Duke and an 81-77 win over the Blue Devils in New Orleans at the Final Four.

The group returned and entered the season as the ACC favorite and preseason No. 1 in the country. But the late-season magic from ’22 has been impossible to duplicate.

With a 1-9 record in Quadrant 1 games, the Heels will need to make a deep run in the ACC tournament next week in Greensboro to avoid becoming the first preseason No. 1 team to miss the NCAA tournament.

Duke closes the regular season with a 14-6 mark in ACC play in Scheyer’s first season.

Duke led 33-31 at the half and 43-36 with 14:03 left in the second half but Bacot was able to get to work inside and Davis found the touch from the 3-point line.

Davis’ 3 at 12:15 tied the game at 43 and then he hit another at 9:01 to give UNC a 46-45 advantage.

A 3 by Pete Nance at 8:30 stretched UNC’s lead to 49-45.

But Duke stayed close and a late layup by guard Jeremy Roach gave them a 60-57 lead with 47.4 seconds left and UNC could not come up with a response down the stretch.

Love's 3-pointer was the signature moment in the Final Four win. Love had another 3 on Saturday night in the final seconds, with a chance to tie, but his shot was too hard.

The long rebound ended up with Filipowski on a fastbreak alone for the game's final basket.

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This year marks the first since 1960 (excluding the pandemic season in 2021) where both teams are unranked coming into the rivalry game.

But the preseason No. 1 and national championship finalists of a year ago have struggled this season. The Tar Heels' 11-8 ACC record has them in 7th place in the conference. A win over Duke would seem a necessary component of an NCAA berth, a loss would almost require an ACC Tournament win to get them back into the Field of 64 conversation.

Fan Aaron Brown told WRAL News he drove three hours to attend the game.

"We got a hotel, we're ready to go. North Carolina better get it tonight," he said.

Duke's 13-6 conference record is enough for the 4th seed in the ACC coming into Saturday's final games of the regular season. That's key for the coming conference tournament, when the first four seeds earn a double bye, but the 5th seeds has a four-game road to the championship.

Much is at play at the top of the ACC standings on Saturday night.

Pitt and Miami, each 14-5 and ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively in the conference, play each other at 6 p.m., while Clemson, at 5th and 13-6 meets Notre Dame at 8 p.m.