National Basketball Association
Duke 84, North Carolina 77
When: 9:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 7, 2015
Where: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Officials:
# Brian Dorsey, # Sean Hull, # Bryan Kersey
Attendance:
21750
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 3 Duke 84, No. 19 North Carolina 77: Freshman Tyus Jones had a season-high 24 points along with seven assists, six rebounds and three steals as the visiting Blue Devils completed a regular-season sweep of the Tar Heels.
Quinn Cook scored 20 points and Jahlil Okafor scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half for Duke (28-3, 15-3 ACC), which won its 11th straight game and will be the No. 2 seed in next week’s conference tournament. Justise Winslow scored 13 points and Amile Jefferson grabbed six rebounds as the Blue Devils defeated North Carolina for the fifth time in the last six meetings.
Marcus Paige led North Carolina (21-10, 11-7) with 23 points and five assists while Brice Johnson collected 17 points and seven rebounds. Justin Jackson chipped in 14 points and J.P. Tokoto recorded 10 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Tar Heels, who committed 16 turnovers and will enter the ACC tournament as the fifth seed.
Duke was held scoreless for nearly seven minutes late in the first half and trailed by six before cutting the deficit to 33-31 at the break. Paige drilled one of his five 3-pointers to extend the North Carolina lead to 49-42 with just under 15 minutes left before Grayson Allen’s triple capped a 14-2 run and gave Duke a 56-51 lead.
Jones, who exited briefly early in the second half with back spasms, hit a 3-pointer with to push Duke’s lead to 65-59 with just over six minutes left and Cook followed with one of his four 3-pointers. Paige drained his final triple with 45 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 78-73, but Duke converted all of its final six foul shots to secure its third win in the last four games at the Smith Center.
GAME NOTEBOOK: North Carolina will face the winner of Boston College-Georgia Tech in Wednesday’s second round of the ACC tournament, while Duke will play the North Carolina State-Pittsburgh winner in Thursday’s quarterfinals. … Winslow fouled out with 1:18 remaining for Duke, which defeated the Tar Heels 92-90 in overtime on Feb. 18. … Jones was 12-of-12 from the foul line for the Blue Devils, who were 21-of-26 from the line compared to 13-of-13 for North Carolina.
Top Game Performances
Duke |
|
North Carolina |
Tyus Jones 24 |
Scoring |
Marcus Paige 23 |
Tyus Jones 7 |
Assists |
Marcus Paige 5 |
Amile Jefferson 6 |
Rebounds |
Kennedy Meeks 9 |
Tyus Jones 12 |
Free Throws Made |
Marcus Paige 6 |
Tyus Jones 3 |
Steals |
Marcus Paige 3 |
Amile Jefferson 2 |
Blocks |
Brice Johnson 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Duke
|
84 |
45.8 |
9-25 |
21-26 |
11 |
30 |
3 |
7 |
10 |
North Carolina
|
77 |
48.3 |
8-16 |
13-13 |
16 |
31 |
6 |
5 |
16 |