While the Blue Devils’ fans might be wondering where Duke’s defensive tenacity was in Chapel Hill Saturday night, the place where it was most missed was on the glass.
It was, in fact, the plethora of second-chance points given up to the Tar Heels that doomed Duke to its fourth loss of the season, and a lack of consistent defensive rebounding was to blame.
“The demoralizing part is giving up the offensive rebounds,” sophomore guard Seth Curry said. “When you play good defense for 30 seconds and they get a layup off an offensive rebound, that’s the rough part.”
North Carolina finished the night with 20 points off of their 12 offensive rebounds and dominated the key with 44 points in the paint in comparison to Duke’s 20.
Beyond the stats, though, it was the Tar Heels’ offensive rebounding that stymied every Blue Devil attempt at a comeback. After a Ryan Kelly jumper cut North Carolina’s lead to seven only four minutes into the second half, it was an offensive rebound that led to a John Henson dunk to stem the run. Thirty-five seconds later, Harrison Barnes made a 3-pointer, and the Tar Heels’ lead was once again 12.
And when Duke had trimmed the lead to single digits with just over three minutes to go, a Henson offensive rebound allowed North Carolina to run 22 more seconds off the clock before two Kendall Marshall free throws returned the lead to 11.
There was no way the Blue Devils could come back if they didn’t have the ball.
“I thought it was huge,” North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said of his team’s effort on the offensive glass. “Especially when we get down to the end, an offensive rebound really extends the possession.”
But if the Tar Heels’ offensive rebounding prowess prevented a Duke comeback, it was their fast-break game that put the Blue Devils in that hole in the first place.
For much of the first half, Duke’s hustle back on defense was lethargic at best, allowing point guard Kendall Marshall to penetrate the lane at will. The freshman finished the game with 15 points, but more importantly 11 assists—many of which came on the fast break.
On at least two possessions, the inability of the Blue Devils’ forwards to guard their men in transition forced the 6-foot-2 Seth Curry to check 7-foot tall Tyler Zeller in the post, and the subsequent confusion lead to easy buckets for North Carolina thanks to solid ball rotation spurred by Marshall.
Those issues were surprising, considering Duke’s preparation for the Tar Heels’ up-tempo pace of play.
“That was something we really had scouted,” forward Ryan Kelly said. “For whatever reason, we didn’t do a great job with that. We knew coming into this game we had to really hustle back on defense, and they really pushed the ball well.”
The Blue Devils’ struggles on the offensive end of the floor also did little to stem North Carolina’s aggressive style. Curry was the only Blue Devil to make a 3-point basket—he was 6-for-11 on the night—and the rest of the team took 16 unsuccessful attempts from deep. Meanwhile, Duke’s starting forwards were a combined 4-for-25 from the field, thanks in part to a 3-for-14 performance from Kyle Singler that epitomized his shooting struggles of late.
The abundance of missed shots, and subsequent long rebounds, gave Marshall and the Tar Heels’ offense a head start on the break.
“Our shooting affected our defense, especially early in the game when we had some really good looks,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “When you don’t knock it down, they’re going to push it down the court.”
In spite of those struggles, though, North Carolina was never quite able to pull away from the Blue Devils, and Duke subsequently had numerous opportunities to steal a win in Chapel Hill despite being outplayed.
But every Duke run was inevitably quashed by a Tar Heels’ offensive rebound and basket that not only broke the Blue Devils’ momentum, but also reenergized a raucous Dean. E. Smith Center crowd.
That might be why when the students swarmed the court following the victory, they made sure to keep the kind Dean Dome rims intact.
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