Duke Stomps UNC

DURHAM

Duke captured a piece of the ACC regular-season title last night, and left nothing to question.

Razor sharp and laser focused, Duke rolled to an 82-50 win over North Carolina in boisterous Cameron Indoor Stadium for its first win against North Carolina at home in five seasons.

Duke trailed only once, led 53-26 at halftime, and was up 71-35 with 11 minutes left, building its lead after halftime behind the play of Brian Zoubek, one of three recruited seniors to play his final home game. The lead reached 36 points minutes later.

"We knew we had to get after them from the start and show exactly what team we were going to be tonight, and what kind of attitude we were going to bring," Zoubek said.

"They had to see it in our eyes the moment we got on that court, and they had to know that they weren't going to get anything."

The margin of victory was Duke's biggest ever over UNC at home. It was also Duke's largest margin in the rivalry since Feb. 29, 1964, a 104-69 win in Chapel Hill, and the second-largest margin ever in the rivalry.

Duke tied Maryland for first place in the ACC at 13-3, but earned the No. 1 seed for this week's ACC Tournament through the conference's tiebreaker procedures.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. Duke and Maryland split their two games. The second tiebreaker is to compare results against the other ACC teams, starting at third place and going down in order until finding an edge.

Duke's results against Clemson were the deciding factor. Duke beat Clemson twice. Maryland split with Clemson.

Duke improved to 26-5 overall and earned a bye in the ACC tournament's first round. It will play either Boston College or Virginia, the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds, in Friday's noon quarterfinal.

"It's indescribable to go out at home this way," Zoubek said. "You can try to appreciate everything that's going on at the time, but I don't think I'll really appreciate the levity of this moment for a while, in the future."

UNC fell to 16-15 overall and to 5-11 in the ACC and will be the 10th seed. It will play in Thursday's ACC Tournament first round against Georgia Tech, the No. 7 seed, at 7 p.m.

North Carolina and Virginia finished tied for ninth place, but Virginia earned the tiebreaker by beating UNC in their only regular-season game.

The Tar Heels had their three-season run as the ACC regular-champion or co-champion snapped.

"They came out and their ‘want to' was higher than ours from the beginning and they played like that the whole game," Will Graves, a UNC forward, said. "I guess four years in a row (of losing at home to North Carolina) built up in them.

"You can't take anything away from them. They played an outstanding game. We just didn't come to play. It hurts that we didn't come prepared to play against Duke."

Duke was in firm control in less than three minutes, after surging to a 12-3 lead. Duke's first three baskets were 3-point shots, by three players, and landed a collective blow from which UNC could not recover.

Kyle Singler led Duke with 25 points. Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith added 20 points each, and Zoubek added 13 rebounds.

John Henson led North Carolina with 14 points. Deon Thompson added 11 points. North Carolina was held to six field goals in the second half in 21 attempts, 28.6 percent shooting accuracy. UNC shot 33.3 percent from the field for the game.

The lead was 22 points after 11 minutes of play. UNC chopped the difference to 35-19 with 6:05 left before halftime after scoring on four consecutive possessions, and Coach Mike Krzyzewski called a time out before UNC could gather any more momentum.

Krzyzewski chewed out both of his big men on the floor, brothers Miles and Mason Plumlee, for letting Thompson grab an offensive rebound to score, and benched them after the timeout, putting Zoubek and Lance Thomas back in the game.

Duke got a 3-pointer from Singler on its next play, and the mild threat was over.

Duke was overwhelming in the final four minutes of the first half. Singler hit two free throws to build the lead to 42-21. He then nailed another 3-pointer.

Smith then raced down the floor and blew past both of North Carolina's guards, Larry Drew and Dexter Strickland, to an easy basket.

The lead was 47-21, and 2:35 still remained before halftime.

"Our seniors have been such a good group," Krzyzewski said.

"They deserved this moment. And I'm really, really happy for them."

bcole@wsjournal.com

UNC Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Ginyard 36 1-3 3-4 1-5 1 3 6

Henson 23 5-10 4-7 3-8 2 0 14

Thompson 26 4-11 3-5 4-6 0 2 11

Drew II 30 1-3 1-2 0-0 2 3 3

Graves 23 0-6 0-0 0-2 0 2 0

Campbell 2 0-1 1-2 0-0 0 0 1

Strickland 21 1-4 0-0 0-1 2 1 2

Petree 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Watts 10 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 2 1

Thornton 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Gallagher 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

TWear 8 0-1 4-4 1-1 0 3 4

Zeller 18 4-8 0-0 0-1 2 0 8

Totals 200 16-48 17-26 11-28 9 16 50

Percentages: FG .333, FT .654; 3-Point Goals: 1-5, .200 (Ginyard 1-1, Thornton 0-1, Graves 0-3); Team Rebounds: 4; Blocked Shots: 3 (Thompson 2, Graves); Turnovers: 15 (T.Wear 3, Thompson 3, Zeller 2, Strickland 2, Henson 2, Graves, Drew II); Steals: 4 (Ginyard 2, Zeller, Thompson); Technical Fouls: None.

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Singler 37 8-17 6-6 2-2 2 1 25

Thomas 16 0-1 2-2 3-6 0 5 2

Zoubek 20 4-4 0-0 5-13 1 4 8

Smith 35 7-16 5-6 2-4 5 1 20

Scheyer 36 4-14 9-9 0-5 7 1 20

MaPlumlee 16 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0

Dawkins 11 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 5

MiPlumlee 19 1-1 0-0 2-4 1 4 2

Kelly 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0

Davidson 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Johnson 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Peters 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 200 26-57 22-23 14-37 16 22 82

Percentages: FG .456, FT .957; 3-Point Goals: 8-21, .381 (Singler 3-6, Scheyer 3-10, Dawkins 1-2, Smith 1-3); Team Rebounds: 1; Blocked Shots: 5 (Zoubek 2, Mi.Plumlee 2, Ma.Plumlee); Turnovers: 9 (Mi.Plumlee 4, Singler 2, Thomas, Davidson, Zoubek); Steals: 6 (Dawkins 2, Singler, Mi.Plumlee, Davidson, Smith); Technical Fouls: None.

North Carolina 26 24 -- 50

Duke 53 29 -- 82

A--9,314