CHAPEL HILL--A frustrating regular season for the men's basketball team, filled with "might-have-beens," ended Saturday night against North Carolina in a recognizable fashion.
The redundancy that has become all too familiar this season continued as the Blue Devils, who played competitively throughout with the second-ranked Tar Heels, came apart during a key second-half stretch resulting in a 99-86 loss.
The Blue Devils led by nine with roughly 13 minutes remaining when the Tar Heels erupted with a 20-2 run. It was highlighted by a transition game filled with ferocious dunks and the sleek shooting of senior Donald Williams. In the end, Duke was left in that all too familiar position of helplessness.
"Our group came out again ready to play," Duke acting head coach Pete Gaudet said. "There were a lot of good things for us... But in the second half it was a little different."
Their third-straight defeat left the Blue Devils reeling at 12-17 for the season, and 2-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, their worst finish since the 1982-83 season. UNC improved to 22-4 (11-4 ACC).
Duke now can only look towards the ACC tournament to salvage its season and continue its streak of 11-straight NCAA tournament appearances. The Blue Devils are set to face N.C. State in the play-in game Thursday night in Greensboro.
Despite their disappointing finish, the Blue Devils are upbeat about their opportunity to start anew and avenge their difficult losses of the past.
"We're 2-14 or 12 or whatever we are, and there's no first-place team now," senior Cherokee Parks said. "We're all going to the ACC tournament to play all those teams that beat us by one or two points... It'll be a little four-game season for us."
The loss to UNC marked the third-straight valiant effort by the Blue Devils against a top 10 opponent that has gone by the wayside. Duke hung tight with top-ranked UCLA until a lapse in the second half allowed the Bruins to pull away. Then, last Wednesday, the Blue Devils fought tooth-and-nail with No. 6 Maryland, only to be deflated by a Joe Smith tip-in at the buzzer.
Saturday night, Duke again mounted a strong effort against an extremely talented UNC squad. Instead of dwelling on the heartbreak of another possible victory slipping through their hands, the Blue Devil's thoughts were positive, hoping to utilize their recent play to catapult them through the upcoming weekend.
"Carolina is one of the top teams in the country, and we really fought them hard for most of the game," sophomore Jeff Capel said. "Now we have to look forward to the last part of our season, and I think that's really good because now we can start off 0-0 and put everything behind us and get ready for four games."
As the game approached the midpoint of the second half, it appeared that the last-place Blue Devils might enter the 8-9 game coming off a victory. Duke had sustained its momentum from an impressive first-half performance, in which freshman Trajan Langdon carried the Blue Devils with 17 points. Duke charged ahead in the second stanza, and built a 62-53 advantage with 13:21 to play on a tip-in from senior Erik Meek.
Suddenly, in a spurt akin to the 29-5 run made by UCLA a week earlier, the Tar Heels exploded. The UNC trapping defense intensified, forcing turnovers and unleashing a potent fast break anchored by the Tar Heels' trio of spectacular sophomores--Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace and Jeff McInnis.
With McInnis, who finished with nine assists to go along with 17 points and seven rebounds, at the helm, Stackhouse and Wallace, both of whom are in the running for various national player of the year awards, found them themselves in the open court for numerous slams.
With 11:09 remaining, Wallace stole the ball near halfcourt and raced downcourt, where he incited the crowd with a monster two-handed jam while being fouled by Duke's Steve Wojciechowski. The Tar Heels were within one, 62-61, the Dean Dome was rocking and the Blue Devils were looking for help.
"Any time Stackhouse and Wallace can get dunks to bring the house down, it's a whole different atmosphere," sophomore Chris Collins said. "I thought we did a good job of keeping the crowd out of the game for the majority of it, but they got some dunks and some threes, and it becomes a very different place to play."
Although it was the fast break that aroused the crowd, it was Williams' nifty outside shooting that slew the Blue Devils. After a cold first half, Williams rose to the occasion in front of the home crowd.
The senior, who hit seven of his final eight shots and finished with 21 points, buried countless off-the-dribble jumpers from all over the court, stymieing what was overall, a solid Duke defensive effort.
"[Williams] was big. There is no doubt about it," Stackhouse said of his teammate. "He came to play. It was his last game. He better have come to play because this is a bad memory to keep with you a long time."
When McInnis tossed an underhanded alley-oop to Stackhouse, which the Sports Illustrated Player of the Year fiercely threw down, UNC led 73-64 with 7:28 to play. A Blue Devil late-game collapse had cost them a victory--again.
"We needed to stop that run a lot earlier than we did," Meek said. "With a team like Carolina, if you give them a lapse they're going to take full advantage of it."
And yet again, the loss was increasingly frustrating for the Blue Devils because of their excellent play for most of the game, led by Langdon's unfaltering touch from beyond the arc. The freshman was deadly from the outside, particularly in the first half, as he picked up the slack on offense, nailing five of six treys. Parks and Capel, the team's two leading scorers, combined for only 5 points on 2-for-14 shooting in the opening stanza.
Every time the Tar Heels knocked on the door, it was as if Langdon would answer the call with a long-range jumper.
"Trajan was terrific," Gaudet said. "We've seen freshmen around the league play well. [Georgia Tech's] Matt Harpring got 27 points, and we told our freshmen, `Come on, let's go do the same thing,' and Trajan stepped up for that type of game today."
As the second half began, the Blue Devils continued to perform well, as offensive support arrived while a 2-3 zone held the Tar Heels in check. But then, as has become commonplace this year for the Blue Devils, everything unraveled.
"The thing that's most frustrating is that people forget that we've had close games in the past," Parks said. "But the best thing about those teams is that we've known what it takes in those last five minutes to put a win together.
"This year, it's like we're getting there, but the other team has that formula."
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