Anytime North Carolina comes to Duke, the game figures to be littered with historical hyperbole. Every contest provides the players on both teams to cement their legacy in this rivalry—and every player wants to be the one whose highlight is still being shown 20 years later.
There was no signature play Wednesday night—no Stackhouse dunk or Capel buzzer-beater—but Tar Heel center Tyler Hansbrough certainly crossed the t's and dotted the i's of his career in Cameron Indoor Stadium with one shot.
With his team leading by nine late in the second half, Hansbrough found himself with the ball more than 19 feet from the basket. Only seconds remained on the shot clock, so Hansbrough was forced to throw up a step-back 3-pointer, just his 14th of the year. The ball soared over the outstretched arms of lockdown defender Dave McClure and swished into the net. Even Hansbrough seemed shocked at his fortune—but given his history in Cameron, perhaps he shouldn't have been.
When he was a freshman, Hansbrough made a clutch 3-pointer late in the game, a shot he still recounts as the favorite basket of his career.
"Not many people were expecting me to make that shot," he said this week. "That's what made it so important."
Plenty of people were anticipating Hansbrough's latest 3-pointer to drop. But that didn't diminish its importance in the game, or its symbolism as a bookend to his career in Cameron, where he became one of four players to finish 4-0.
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