UNC 101, DUKE 87, FINAL: Lawson adds salt to the wound, dunking on an open fastbreak to give UNC a cool 100 points, the first time Duke's given up the century mark to an opponent since 2000. We're not sure what the over/under was for this one in Vegas, but here's to hoping some of you took the over. Check back on the blog later for more on the game.
UNC 96, DUKE 86, 0:35: With Ellington at the line for two, the Duke bench waves for the crowd to make noise. It's no good, though, as Ellington makes both. The student section starts a heartfelt "We Believe," chant, but the paying fans of the upper bowl are filing out. It's close to official: the Class of 2009 will graduate without seeing a win over North Carolina at home. It appears the windy conditions outside won't have any effect on the postgame activities of students on campus.
UNC 92, DUKE 78, 2:09: The Crazies haven't given up, attempting to cheer life back into this place after Scheyer hits only the team's second 3-pointer of the half. North Carolina answers with yet another layup, as this vaunted Blue Devils defense is being cut apart. Smith's layup-and-1 was another fan favorite, but the inevitable seems to be setting in around here. Even the temperature has started to come down, if you can believe it. Maybe it was too much to expect Duke's early hot hand to stay as hot throughout the second half, but the Blue Devils have struggled mightily in comparison to their counterparts in the category of "easy baskets."
UNC 87, DUKE 71, 3:42: The troubles continue as Henderson attempts to clear the corner around Hansbrough but slips on the court, giving possession back over to the Tar Heels. Lawson helps North Carolina continue its push for a fourth-straight victory in Cameron Indoor, scoring on another slick drive through the Duke interior for a basket-and-1. We await his free throw out of the break. But it's going to take a Herculean effort, probably consisting of a bevy of 3-pointers, for Duke to close this gap.
UNC 83, DUKE 71, 5:15: Lawson continues to add to his already impressive second half, raising his total to a team-high 16 points. Then, with the shot clock winding down for Carolina, Hansbrough steps back and nails a 3-pointer. The game is starting to get away from Duke, and the Blue Devils are not helping themselves in any way. A Nolan Smith pass sails into the crowd when Scheyer slips on the ground, and a rebound falls out of Singler's hands as he looks to pass before possessing and the ball goes out of bounds and over to Carolina.
UNC 73, DUKE 69, 7:59: Ty Lawson has come alive of late, scoring many of his eight second-half points recently on some shifty drives through the lane. On the opposite side of the shooting spectrum, Henderson has gone cold, missing all five of his second half shots, including four from downtown. The Blue Devils force a turnover, but when Lance Thomas is unable to convert an easy putback off a Jon Scheyer missed 3-pointer, and Thomas is called for a foul on the ensuing rebound. The missed opportunities are piling up for Duke, as the Blue Devils have collectively missed all eight of their 3-point attempts this half. They will have to find their stroke again if they hope to reclaim this lead.
UNC 69, DUKE 65, 10:30: The Tar Heels tie it at 58 on a alley-oop from Hansbrough that brings the North Carolina bench to its feet. With the shot clock winding down, though, Singler responds with a 3-pointer that hits as the buzzer sounds, giving him game-high 19 points. On a two-on-two fast break off a Tar Heel turnover, Smith keeps it rather than dishing to Paulus outside the arc. The play results in a Singler foul on the rebound, and as the players walk back up the court Paulus goes over and grabs Smith to talk the play over. After two awson free throws gives UNC the lead back, Thomas regains it for Duke on a strong offensive rebound and putback off a Scheyer missed shot. Then the two players they'll all be talking about tomorrow: Ellington and Henderson. Ellington hits a 3-pointer, and Henderson misses one in response.
In off-the-court news, Dean Sue has just sent out an email to announce that—win-or-lose—there will be no bonfire on the quad tonight, breaking a long held tradition in the event of a Duke victory over North Carolina. Apparently, the fire marshalls have deemed the weather to be too windy for a safe burning of the benches. Whether or not students would even earn the right to a bonfire is yet to be seen.
DUKE 58, UNC 56, 15:31: The Blue Devils force a turnover quickly, winning a jumpball with the possession arrow pointed in their favor. But for what price? Singler is hit with a deadball technical foul for elbowing one of the Tar Heels, bringing his foul total to three. Singler gets his revenge though, when he scores four points on a goaltended floater and a fastbreak dunk. The Duke defense and Cameron Crazies continue to feed off of each other, as the Blue Devils make North Carolina fight for every basket. But then the Tar Heels score four quick, closing the margin as the Blue Devils try to regain their hot hand. The two teams go into the first TV timeout of the half with a Singler putback on one end followed by Henderson smartly drawing a charge on the other end against a driving Danny Green, the team's leading scorer with 13 who now has three fouls.
NOTABLE HALFTIME STATS: FG % - Duke 62%, UNC 50%. Scheyer and Henderson have 13 points each, with Singler and Paulus chipping in 10 and 8, respectively. Hansbrough has just four points, three rebounds and two fouls. The Blue Devils are a collective 6-of-9 from behind the arc versus the Tar Heels' 4-of-7.
DUKE 52, UNC 44, HALF: Danny Green hits a 3-pointer, but then the Blue Devils, oh, did they answer. Paulus runs down the clock, dishes to Singler, then finds Lance Thomas alone under the basket for a gorgeous layup, and-1. The crowd reacts racously, but Paulus just looks back at the bench immediately and points to head coach Mike Krzyzewksi. Thomas misses the free throw, but the Blue Devils go into the half up eight with confidence extremely high.
DUKE 48, UNC 41, 0:55: Then there's Paulus. Playing with an intensity almost transcending that of his own teammates, he is diving for steals, holding his own on defense and hitting big-time shots. The surging senior now has eight after a pull-back jumper from the top of the lane. Carolina hits four straight from the free-throw line (this area of the game will undoubtedly prove important down the stretch), but Duke maintains the lead on the strength of its now-hot shooting, with Henderson chipping in a 3-pointer of his own. On the other end, Zoubek is called for a shooting foul, but, of course, the Crazies cry it was really a block. No matter, Carolina only hits 1-of-2, and Singler rains another 3-pointer to inflate the lead to seven. The Tar Heels commit a couple turnovers that keep this place jumping and the heat index rising. With under a minute to go, Duke will have to play smart in order to avoid a last-second Tar Heels' mini-comeback.
DUKE 40, UNC 36, 3:23: On the first possession out of the break, the offense stalls and Paulus pulls it back out. He checks himself, then calls his own number for a deep three to give Duke the lead. It sparks a 7-0 run that saw Smith shake Fraser out of his shoes for a layup and Singler nail a jumper from the baseline. The stadium literally shakes. Duke is on a 22-7 run since facing a 29-18 deficit.
UNC 34, DUKE 33, 6:22: Scheyer hits from deep and Paulus draws a five-second closely guarded violation for a bit of a momentum swing in Duke's favor. Paulus, who definitely seems to be one of the Crazies' favorite players, hits his first shot of the night, a deep 3-pointer from the left wing. Hansbrough gets free off a screen-and-roll and heads strong right for the rim, but Henderson stands tough and draws the charge. Seconds later, Hansbrough's hit with his second as he's called for a checking foul against Scheyer, much to the delight of the Crazies. Even more to the delight of everyone in Cameron Indoor, Paulus dives out of bounds into the student section to deflect a fast-break pass. In the final three possessions before the next TV timeout, it's the three players who everybody's been saying Duke would need to step up. Singler nails a 3-pointer, Henderson drives hard to the rack for a pretty layup and Scheyer slashes through the lane and puts up a floater—all to bring Duke within one. Naturally, the Crazies' cue Crazy Towel Guy, and the place goes wild.
UNC 28, DUKE 18, 10:52: Brian Zoubek, David McClure and Nolan Smith check into the game, and Jon Scheyer, seemingly having recovered from the hit suffered from Thompson, remains on the court. After Smith is called for a questionable charging call on a nice drive to the basket, the Blue Devils secure a key defensive rebound and then an uncontested layup for Smith on the other end. But the Tar Heels speed on the break catches Duke out of position, and Bobby Fraser is able to nail a silencing 3-pointer. Henderson chips in a couple nice buckets, but the Blue Devils need to get back on defense. North Carolina is pushing the ball every time up the court and it's resulting in open three's (another later from Fraser) and drives to the hole in hard-to-defend, one-on-one situations. Heading into the second TV timeout of the game, Wayne Ellington is going to the line to shoot two. Simply put, Duke will be extremely hard-pressed to pull this game out if it continues to let North Carolina score at this rate—28 points in just nine minutes.
UNC 14, DUKE 6, 15:48: After Carolina scores the game's first bucket, Gerald Henderson brings the house down with a backdoor cut, wide-open dunk off a pretty feed from Jon Scheyer. Duke commits two turnovers in a row on sloppy mistakes, and North Carolina scores on its first six possessions. A bad pass to the wing gives Deon Thompson a fast break for the Tar Heels, and Scheyer goes down hard trying to draw the charge. Thompson misses, but Tyler Hansbrough finishes with a uncontested dunk. Scheyer has to be helped off the floor by medical staff. In the first few minutes, the Blue Devils have already committed a number of turnovers and allowed the Tar Heels to dictate the pace of the game, which in this case is very, very fast.
PREGAME: Inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, the intensity is rising, and so is the heat. With the people crammed in way past capacity, and all of them screaming at the tops of their lungs, the atmosphere is truly special. Just stepping inside here, you know it's Carolina Gameday.
After watching the pregame shoot-around, one thing we noticed was how Greg Paulus was nailing seemingly everything he took. Exhibiting his typical stern, hell-yeah look, Paulus was knocking down 3-pointers from every angle.
Some highlights from the Crazies. One fan's sign read, "Carolina Blue is past tense for Carolina Blows." Another: "Henderson, can you put a ring on it?" There are blue-painted werewolves, a man in armor and a crown, and perhaps best of all, a student wearing a Beaker mask, alluding to one of the Tar Heels more rectangularly shaped faces.
Some celebrity and media sightings you may be interested in: Duke alumnus Aubrey McClendon, ESPN columnist Stephen A. Smith (whether he qualifies as celebrity or media remains to be seen) former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, and former Duke players and newly minted Super Bowl champ Patrick Bailey. Dana O'Neil is here with ESPN.com, and Seth Davis is representing SI.com, and you know it's a big game when Dick "Hoops" Weiss is in the building. Also in attendance, five future Blue Devils in Ryan Kelly ('09), Mason Plumlee ('09), Andre Dawkins ('10), Josh Hairston ('10), and Tyler Thorton ('10). And Harrison Barnes, the No. 3 ranked player in the 2010 class, is here also to take a look at what it's really like inside historic Cameron Indoor. Let's get this thing going.
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