CHAPEL HILL — It wasn’t pretty, but Duke will take it.
Despite shooting 31.9 percent from the field, including 22.5 percent in the first half, the Blue Devils gutted out a 64-54 win over rival North Carolina Wednesday night in the Dean E. Smith Center, Duke’s second win in Chapel Hill in the last three years.
“I don’t care at all [that it was ugly],” junior guard Nolan Smith said. “It was a game we had to grind out, and we did.”
The No. 8 Blue Devils (20-4, 8-2 in the ACC) did it behind another Herculean effort by their top trio of Smith, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler. They played a combined 119 minutes and were the only Duke players to score double-digit points. Scheyer led the way with 24 on 7-of-20 shooting, including 5-of-9 from beyond the arc. Singler added 19, and Smith chipped in 10 after an 0-for-7 first half.
Mason Plumlee added seven points off the bench, including a reverse dunk that sparked a game-clinching 16-5 run.
Until that point, though, it had been a back-and-forth affair, with the Blue Devils unable to pull away from the pesky Tar Heels (13-11, 2-7). North Carolina challenged Duke inside all night, registering 12 blocks. The Blue Devils converted just 3-of-28 2-pointers in the first half, compared to a 6-of-12 performance from beyond the arc.
“Buckets were tough to come by,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “The ball was not going in, and they blocked a lot of shots. They’re an outstanding defensive team. If they don’t block it, they change how you shoot it.”
It was more of the same in the second half, as Duke finished 9-for-18 from beyond the arc but just 22-for-69 overall. Yet the Blue Devils started to pull away after Plumlee’s dunk, with Scheyer scoring 11 points in the final six-and-a-half minutes, including a couple of huge 3-pointers in that game-breaking run.
With Duke up by six and 2:33 remaining in the contest, Scheyer drilled a long ball from the wing, giving the Blue Devils their largest lead of the night and deflating the Tar Heels. North Carolina’s youth showed after that, with the Tar Heels forcing ill-advised shots as Duke closed out its second rivalry win since 2006.
“Our guys at the end of the ball game did good things,” Krzyzewski said. “We never turned it over, and we hit free throws.”
As a result, Duke got its second straight road win after starting 1-4 away from Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. The Blue Devils also cleaned up many of their missed shots, corralling 23 offensive rebounds.
“It was a big game for us,” Scheyer said. “We needed a win on the road, and we knew these guys were going to give us their best shot. I thought we did a good job handling the runs that they made and really made some tough plays down the stretch.”
It wasn’t easy. North Carolina came into the contest needing a marquee victory to improve its weak NCAA Tournament resume. The Tar Heels showed some of the potential that allowed them to beat top-15 teams Michigan State and Ohio State, but their inexperience was also evident. John Henson, for example, blocked four shots but had some poor offensive possessions, characterized by multiple airballs. North Carolina, which averaged 89.8 points per game in last year’s championship campaign, mustered just 54 points Wednesday—its fewest point total in the Tobbaco Road rivalry since 2002.
The Tar Heels shot just 2-for-10 in the final four minutes, while the Blue Devils didn’t miss a shot and made just enough free throws to maintain a double-digit lead. Krzyzewski said that was a key in a tightly-contested game that saw the Tar Heels hang with Duke until late in the second half.
“Any time you play these guys, it’s going to be a war,” Scheyer said. “We did a good job showing maturity. Nolan and Kyle made some big plays down the stretch. It was a fun game, a good game to win.... It was good to finish up with a win over here.”
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