Nolan Smith and Seth Curry went on a scoring rampage Wednesday night after halftime and fired Duke past North Carolina 79-73 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Smith, a senior guard, and Curry, a sophomore guard, combined to score 40 of Duke's 50 points in the second half. They almost single-handedly wiped out North Carolins's 43-29 halftime lead, after Duke trailed by 16 points late in the first half.
Smith and Curry scored 24 consecutive points in one stretch, which helped the Blue Devils force a 54-54 tie. After trailing for the first 30:16, Duke led for the final 9:12 after Ryan Kelly buried a 3-pointer from the right wing for a 57-55 lead.
Smith said Duke's transformation into an attacking, aggressive team came at halftime after a talk from Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
"Coach just said it was on us," Smith said. "He wanted us to play tougher. He wanted us to play together and take our time.
"He wanted us to play our defense, like we know how. We did that in the second half, and we were a different team. To walk away from this game with a win, we showed we were very tough."
The aggressive play had other benefits. It knocked the Tar Heels back, and rattled all the confidence built in the first half. It also put the Tar Heels into serious foul trouble, and forced Coach Roy Williams to play his bench, which couldn't match the Blue Devils' starters.
Duke forged a 60-55 lead with 8:23 left. North Carolina chopped the lead to 60-59 and trailed 62-60 with 6:54 left, but was running out of steam. The Blue Devils started forcing the Tar Heels to foul them and free throws built the lead, and they carried a 72-66 advantage into the final 1:51 that proved insurmountable.
"In the second half we started to guard them," Smith said. "We kept them in front of us. We started to play a little bit tougher."
Duke is 22-2 overall and firmed up its hold on first place in the ACC by improving to 9-1. North Carolina fell to 17-6 and 7-2, and lost for only the second time in its last 12 games. Duke beat North Carolina for the third consecutive game.
Smith scored 34 points, a career high, with 22 coming after halftime. Curry started the second half in place on Tyler Thornton, played all 20 minutes and finished with 22 points, with 18 coming after halftime.
"We were in a groove in the second half," Curry said. "We were real aggressive and our shots were falling. The big thing was we got some stops on the other end. That translated into good offense."
Williams said that Duke's pressure defense led to North Carolina's shooting woes in the second half. North Carolina missed 20 of 32 field-goal attempts after halftime and all six of its 3-point attemptse.
"I've always said things are better when the ball goes in the basket," Williams said. "We just gave them too many opportunities. They were more aggressive than we were in the second half."
Tyler Zeller led the Tar Heels with 24 points and 13 rebounds. John Henson added 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tar Heels got major contributions from all nine of their top rotation players, led by Kendall Marshall with his ballhandling and Zeller inside in scoring and rebounding, in forging its halftime lead.
It also survived the absence of Dexter Strickland, a shooting guard who picked up his third foul with 8:28 left before halftime, when he charged into Kyle Singler on a break trying to get a layup. Williams took him out for the rest of the half. The Tar Heels hit quick and hard in building a 7-0 lead and never let up for the rest of the half. The pressure was kept on Duke inside and outside.
Duke shot 33 percent from the field in the first half. It made four of 13 attempts on 3-pointers. UNC held a 27-18 edge rebounding, with Zeller grabbing nine, five coming on offense.
The closest Duke came after UNC's initial surge was 14-12 on Smith's 3-pointer from the right wing. UNC then went on a 10-3 scoring run, starting when Zeller hit a 15-foot jumper from the left, to build its lead to 24-15.
bcole@wsjournal.com
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