UNC basketball came into Cameron Indoor Stadium needing a victory to clinch the ACC regular-season title outright. Starting out hot with a 15-4 run, the Tar Heels defeated Duke 84-79.
The Heels (23-6, 17-3) were led by graduate guard Cormac Ryan, who had a career-high 31 points. Junior forward Harrison Ingram was the only other Tar Heel to get double-digit scoring with 14.
In fact, Ryan’s 31 points were the most by a Tar Heel in Cameron Indoor since his coach put 35 on Duke on Mar. 8, 1992.
The Blue Devils (24-7, 15-5) were led by sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, who had 23 points and 7 rebounds. The rest of the starting lineup got double-digit scoring, except sophomore forward Mark Mitchell only getting three points. Duke was held to 2-of-11 from beyond the arc in the first half and gave up nine fast break points.
Here’s what you need to take away from the game.
Takeaway #1: Cormac Ryan set the tone for the evening
The former three-year team captain at Notre Dame, Ryan scored more points in this game than in his previous three matchups with the Blue Devils. On Feb. 3, the Blue Devils held him to nine points.
“Having a guy that’s been at this stage, even though it’s from another school…he understands what it takes in order to make plates to even have a chance to win in this type of game,” third-year head coach Hubert Davis said.
Back-to-back open threes by the New York, N.Y. native help give the Tar Heels a 10-4 lead. The energy coming off the bench after the second make was that of a team confident in themselves.
This was echoed by coach Davis, talking about how the start of the game gave his team even more confidence in themselves.
Carolina knew what they had to do to get their first outright ACC title since 2017. They needed to set the tone early and impose their will on the Blue Devils.
“I think it gave us great momentum,” Ryan said after the game. “I think we had the lead the entire game. I think it set the tone for how we felt and how we were going to play tonight.”
Takeaway #2: The first few minutes dictate Duke’s overall game
In the previous nine games, Duke was the team to get off to a hot start and forcing teams to play at their tempo. This time, however, the shoe was on the other foot.
By the time the second media timeout was called, Duke was down 21-8.
“The connectivity on offense and you’ve got to get some of the loose balls,” second-year head coach Jon Scheyer said.
From the rest of the game, Duke actually outscored the Tar Heels and even got the game within one point. Senior guard Jeremy Roach hit a clutch three from the top of the key to make the score 43-42.
“We just came out flat,” Roach said. “We came out settling.”
The Leesburg, V.A. native even talked about allowing Cormac Ryan to get too comfortable in the game, He noticed that after those two threes, his confidence was up there.
The fact that even with that big of a deficit early, the fact that Duke was able to make it a one-possession game kept their hopes up.
“We just couldn’t sustain the stops you needed to get over that hump,” Scheyer said.
Takeaway #3: Losing that lead in the second half fired Carolina up
When Roach hit that three, there were some emotions brewing on the Carolina bench. In fact, they were not too happy with the situation.
“Yeah, we got ticked off in the huddle,” Davis said. “We were upset. We just were like ‘Let’s go.”
UNC basketball proceeded to go on a 9-1 run afterward to put the lead back to nine points.
Whether it was another three-pointer from Ryan or Ingram completing an old-fashioned three-point play, the Heels did not want to let Duke share their conference title.
“Let’s get some stops defensively,” Davis said. “That allows us to get out in transition where we [have] been consistently pretty good all season.”
Davis would go on to call that moment the most important part of the game because it forced his team to dig deep. It was how they responded after that timeout that gave the Heels the regular season conference title outright.
Now, the eyes of the conference turns to Washington, D.C. for the conference tournament. Carolina will be the No. 1 seed, while Duke falls to the No. 2 seed. Both teams will wait until next Thursday to play their next game. The Heels are looking to play their way into a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament unless they fall in their first game.
Next game for UNC: Winner of the Virginia Tech/Florida State in ACC Tournament Quarterfinals (Mar. 14 – Noon)
Next game for Duke: Winner of NC State / Syracuse / Louisville in ACC Tournament Quarterfinals (Mar. 14 – 7 p.m.)