Holliday: Duke, UNC are winners in great Triangle doubleheader
Posted January 23, 2023 3:57 p.m. EST
We’ll always remember January 21 as the day Terquavion Smith took a terrible fall and Leaky Black was ejected for his role in Smith’s very hard landing. Happily, Smith is now out of the hospital and listed by NC State as day to day.
Terquavion Smith’s injury notwithstanding, it was a rare weekend in the Triangle with a day-night doubleheader showcasing Duke, UNC, and NC State in high stakes contests just a few miles apart.
Duke holds off #17 Miami
Miami Coach Jim Larranaga bemoaned the timing of his team’s trip to Durham. “I don’t know what Jeremy Roach’s toe situation is, but I wish we played them last week,” Larranaga quipped. “I think the game really came down to Jeremy roach coming in and going six for ten and taking over the team.”
Roach’s injured toe had been secured in a walking boot since the Blue Devils’ loss at NC State January 4. Duke Coach Jon Scheyer put Roach on the floor against Miami after the first TV time out with the score tied.
The Blue Devils’ floor general played 11 ½ minutes of the first half, scoring 8 points on 3-3 shooting and handing out 3 assists. Roach and 6’6 passing wizard Jacob Grandison teamed up for three late first half baskets that were the only thing keeping Miami from a solid lead at intermission.
Grandison set a screen for a Roach jump shot. Grandison slipped Roach a pass in rhythm for a three point shot. Then Roach returned the favor and Grandison buried a three. So the teams headed to the locker room tied at 38.
Miami was red hot from beyond the arc in the first half, making 5-9. The Canes drilled another five threes in the second half on just twelve attempts, even though star Isaiah Wong was hampered by a sinus infection and scored only one point in the game’s first 33 minutes.
Apart from that, Larranaga said his team “got out of character in the second half, taking way too many difficult shots, no assists, everything off the bounce.” The Canes shot a miserable 30% in the second half.
Duke took advantage, going up 57-49 on a nifty fall away by Roach. A few minutes later, Roach scored on a tough drive. On the following possession, Roach found Tyrese Proctor open beyond the arc. Proctor’s three put Duke up seven points with 5:18 to play.
But that was Duke’s last field goal. In fact, over the final 11:16 the Blue Devils made just 2 of 16 shots, including one possession where the Devils grabbed three offensive rebounds but missed four field goal attempts!
This was the juncture of the game where Miami really capitalized on its three point shooting. Jordan Miller, the Canes’ leading scorer with 19 points, buried a three that cut the Duke lead to five. And Wong, whom Larranaga said probably shouldn’t have even been playing because of “all the meds he was taking” swished two from long distance in succession, further cutting into the Blue Devils’ lead.
Then two extraordinary events helped save Duke.
First, Miller picked up his second, third, and fourth fouls within a span of 31 seconds. Miller’s fourth foul at the 2:18 mark, led to two pressure free throws by the unflappable freshman Kyle Filipowski, giving Duke a 66-63 lead. Miller eventually fouled out and was not on the floor in the closing seconds when his offensive skills might have helped the Hurricanes tie or win the game.
The second shocker saw Norchad Omier, the ACC’s best shooter at 61%, miss a put back after an offensive rebound, a shot that would have tied the game with 45 seconds left. Omier, at 6’7, pulled down 14 boards against the huge Blue Devil front line, but the fact that he missed 6 of his 9 field goal attempts left his coach wondering: “Was it their size,” Larranaga proffered, “or was it the Duke name that bothered us? Was it the crowd?”
Duke’s Scheyer was thinking along those same lines. After two more clutch free throws by Filipowski sealed a 68-66 Blue Devils’ win, the first year coach paid tribute to the environment: “It was the 500th consecutive sellout that we’ve had and what an amazing place to play basketball,” Scheyer said. “Cameron is one of a kind.”
Still, Duke’s win was about more than palpable noise levels or the energy in the building. Players had to perform.
I asked Scheyer how his team won despite the long field goal drought. “Just gutting it out,” the coach responded. “Getting loose balls, finishing plays. Defense has been our backbone.”
In the final 15 seconds, Roach recognized Miami’s alignment from a late game play the Hurricanes had run against Duke last season. This recognition put him in position to knock the ball loose from Nigel Pack. Then he won the battle for possession—the penultimate Duke loose ball scramble.
Roach played 27 minutes and Scheyer admitted afterward he didn’t plan to use his recovering point guard for that long a period in his first game back.
Now Duke has a very quick turnaround Monday night at Virginia Tech. The Hokies have struggled with their own injury woes. But with the return of sharpshooter Hunter Cattoor, VT, which came within 10 seconds of winning at Clemson Saturday, now looks to be full strength.
Part II: A memorable night at the Smith Center
A number of journalists including yours truly made their way to Chapel Hill after the cliffhanger in Durham. I don’t think any of us will forget this game either.
Terquavion Smith’s fall was one of the worst I have seen since David Thompson tripped over 6’9 Phil Spence’s shoulder and fell backward on his head. Improbably, Thompson played a week later, leading NC State to the 1974 national championship. Apparently Terquavion Smith’s fall was also not as bad as it first appeared. He announced on social media, “I am fine; appreciate all the prayers and concern.” And again, NC State lists his playing status as “day to day.” Tuesday night’s game against Notre Dame it seems to me is too soon for Smith to return. But I would not be surprised if he is seen running the floor with his Wolfpack teammates Saturday in Winston-Salem.
UNC Coach Hubert Davis spent the first portion of his press conference lamenting the injury to NC State’s best player. “First of all I just want to talk about Terquavion Smith,” Davis said, calling him an “unbelievable kid and unbelievable player. You never want to see anybody get hurt or injured and my hope and my prayers are that he’s not hurt and not injured.”
Davis also defended Leaky Black, who was assessed a Flagrant-Two foul and ejected for forcible contact while Smith was airborne. “I talked to Leaky after the game,” Davis noted, “because Leaky is such a sweet kind kid and he was worried about Terquavion.”
Davis praised Black’s defense on Smith. The Farmville Central graduate scored 15 points in 23 minutes but needed 15 shots to make 5 field goals. There were a couple of times though were Smith got the best of UNC’s lockdown defender.
Early in the second half Smith drove right past Black, made the basket, and picked up Armando Bacot’s third foul for a three point play that tied the game at 38.
Now Bacot sat out five and a half minutes after picking up his second foul in the first half, but there was no way he was coming out after number three in the second half. Mando was on a mission!
Bacot has been chasing two long- standing UNC rebounding records and he pledged to break both of them at home against NC State, rather than Tuesday night on the road at Syracuse. The big guy made good on his promise to set new marks in front of the big crowd in Chapel Hill.
First to fall was Billy Cunningham’s 58 year old record for most double doubles in school history. Bacot quickly got to 10 points with a couple of baskets early in the second half. When he grabbed his 10th rebound just before the under 16 time out, the Richmond, Virginia native had produced his 61st double double.
Tyler Hansbrough’s career rebounding record required more work on Bacot’s part. He needed 17 boards to become UNC’s all time career leader on the glass. With 6:54 left in the game, Bacot snatched a defensive rebound off a missed shot by Ebenezer Dowuna. The knowledgeable Carolina crowd immediately let out a huge roar. No official announcement was needed. Bacot’s fans knew.
Bacot no doubt profited from NC State’s decision to play him straight up. Coach Kevin Keatts explained afterward why the Wolfpack did not double team the guy in the post. “What he’s become really good at is when you double him, those guards tend to get off,” Keatts observed. And Keatts liked the trade off giving up two points instead of three. “That’s why the game was in range, because we didn’t have two doubling him where he could throw the ball out to the other guys who could make shots.”
R.J. Davis was the main guy making shots. 26 points on 63% shooting—the player’s early season finger injury now fully healed.
Still, Davis took just eight shots, making five. He more than anyone benefitted from Hubert Davis’ plan to attack the basket and try to draw fouls. “Currently NC State is the worst (in the ACC) at putting people out to the free throw line,” Davis pointed out. The coach did not like UNC’s start offensively, but added, “after the first six to seven minutes we did a better job of putting our head down and penetrating.”
NC State averages 18 fouls per contest in ACC warfare. But officials whistled the Wolfpack for a whopping 27 personals at the Dean Smith Center. UNC made 36 of 39 free throw attempts, with R.J. Davis going 14-14.
The Pack, meanwhile, shot just 12 free throws, a discrepancy pointed out frequently by NC State fans on social media. State losing 80-69 having made 24 fewer free throws will no doubt be a topic of conversation until the teams meet against next month in Raleigh.
It was a remarkable Saturday in every respect, the rare opportunity to see all three Triangle teams live in the span of a few hours, with great moments emotional and historical. But the best may be yet to come. Duke, UNC, and NC State all appear to be in good position for bids to the NCAA Tournament. And it’s not too late for one of these teams to make a run at the ACC regular season championship.
