Tar Heels continue dominance of Duke

Strange things usually happen when the Duke and North Carolina men's basketball teams face off at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and there were certainly many strange occurrences when the rivals matched up Sunday afternoon.

But one thing which was not unusual about the game was the outcome, an 84-78 Tar Heel win. It was the seventh consecutive time that UNC (20-9, 10-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) has defeated the Blue Devils, and it assured the Tar Heels a 20-win season for the 26th consecutive year.

UNC won the game because Duke (18-11, 8-8 in the ACC), which usually plays stifling perimeter defense, was unable to stop junior Jeff McInnis and sophomore Shammond Williams. McInnis harassed the Blue Devils all game with his penetrating moves to the basket and his jump shots. He finished with 25 points, matching his career high, before being ejected for committing his second technical foul with 26 seconds remaining.

Williams scored a career-high 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting. He scored 10 straight points for the Tar Heels late in the second half, including a jump shot over Duke junior co-captain Jeff Capel just before the 35-second clock expired.

"I thought Williams was sensational for them," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He hit big shots, a few of them at the end of the clock. Sometimes points are deceiving-some points are bigger than others. I thought his points today were huge for North Carolina."

The final eight of Williams' 10 straight points started a 12-0 scoring run which seemed to seal the Tar Heel victory. After the streak, UNC held a 71-56 lead with 2:19 to play, and Duke senior co-captain Chris Collins-who had been the Blue Devils' best scoring threat for much of the game-was sidelined with a sprained foot.

Duke kept fouling North Carolina's players, and the Tar Heels hit nine of 10 free throws over the next 37 seconds. With the game seemingly out of hand and the Cameron Crazies-many of whom had camped out for weeks to attend the game-in a stunned state of silence, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski looked to the end of his bench and inserted four walk-ons and freshman Matt Christensen into the lineup, symbolically conceding defeat.

Nobody told the Blue Devil reserves that the game was over, though. Freshman Jay Heaps sparked a 9-1 Duke run with his three assists and steal. But it was Heaps' intentional foul of McInnis which really began to spark the Blue Devils-and their fans-to get back into the game. McInnis reacted angrily after the foul and drew his second technical of the game, allowing freshman Todd Singleton to hit a pair of free throws that cut the lead to eight points. Duke got the ball back, and senior Baker Perry nailed a 24-foot three-point shot which prompted Krzyzewski to bring his starters back onto the floor.

"The first technical foul, Chris Collins made the three, and he yelled in my face, 'We're coming back, we're coming back,'" McInnis said. "So I made a shot over him, and I said, 'We're not going to let you back in now.' And the next thing I know, they called a tech. And I just asked [the referee] if he saw Chris Collins."

It is likely that the officials did see Collins during the game. Otherwise, they would have missed most of Duke's first-half scoring. The Blue Devils struggled mightily from both the field and the free-throw line in the first half, scoring just 21 points and being held nearly five minutes without a field goal. Collins, who missed much of the second half with ice wrapped around his sprained foot, led Duke by scoring 11 of his 18 points before intermission.

Collins' absence left the Blue Devils searching for leadership late in the second half.

"You don't lose a leader like that and not have it have an impact on your team," Krzyzewski said. "That's what happens, and you've got to react to that. We've reacted to a lot of adversity well all year."

In the first half, both teams' guards had difficulty scoring, and the Tar Heels held a 32-21 edge at intermission.

"I was disappointed in the movement offensively in the first half," UNC head coach Dean Smith said. "I blame myself totally if I have a team that doesn't move better without the ball than that. I thought that we had played very poorly the first half, and I'm sure Mike [Krzyzewski] felt his team had, too."

The Tar Heels' main offensive weapon in the half was junior center Serge Zwikker, who scored all 12 of his points before intermission, most of them on 10-foot jump shots.

Duke started the second half looking like an entirely different team than had showed up prior to intermission. Led by a pair of Collins three-pointers, the Blue Devils went on a 17-6 run to start the half and cut the UNC lead to 39-38 with 15:15 to play. Duke, which led only once in the first half, could never get any closer, though.

The Blue Devils were not helped by their shooting woes. Capel and sophomore Ricky Price combined to hit just 14 of their 39 shots, and the Blue Devils were a lowly 14-for-25 from the free-throw line for the game. But Krzyzewski said that intangibles were an important factor in the loss.

"Our team has been playing with so much emotion over the second half of the year, and they're trying like crazy," Krzyzewski said. "All that just wasn't there today, and that's nobody's fault. It's being human."

One intangible factor which benefited the Blue Devils was the support which they received from their home crowd of 9,314. Until the final minutes, the Cameron Crazies were loud and boisterous for most of the contest.

"I really appreciate what our students did in making this a big event," Krzyzewski said. "These last few weeks, especially in Cameron, have been like old times."

The loss ended Duke's five-game winning streak and left the team in fourth place in the final regular ACC standings. But the Blue Devils do not see Sunday's defeat as a demoralizing loss of momentum.

"Even with this loss, I think we're going to keep our confidence," Capel said. "This will make us even hungrier going into the ACC Tournament."

NOTES: Collins left the court with about two minutes to play, and he had his foot x-rayed after the game. It is the same foot that he fractured last November and which forced him to miss a game in December. Krzyzewski said Collins' status is questionable for the ACC Tournament... Junior Carmen Wallace, who has been out for three weeks with an injured knee, practiced for the first time on Friday and suited up for Sunday's game. Wallace said that his knee was about 80 percent healthy.