The 237th meeting of North Carolina and Duke

More than halfway through the season, the North Carolina Tar Heels have grown into a deeper and more confident team, finding their strengths late in the 237th meeting of North Carolina and Duke.

On February 20, eight days after the originally scheduled Tobacco Road rivalry game was postponed due to snow, the Tar Heels took confidence from seven straight ACC wins to go ahead and beat the Blue Devils 74-68, in a loud Dean E. Smith Center.

It seemed pretty simple. For Duke, the game plan was to control Carolina on the inside, while Carolina wanted to limit Duke’s three-point shots.

“I think they’re the best 3-point shooting team in the country,” said head coach Roy Williams, “They shoot 42% in conference games, and we have no one individual in our team shooting that well.”

Williams’ goal was to guard the perimeter, but he also hoped that they would miss some of their shots. And they did. Duke only connected five threes, shooting only 22% from beyond the arch, forcing them to find other avenues to put points on the board.

For the first half, the heels struggled to defend the jump shot, letting Duke go 16-32 in field goals. Even after starting with a six point lead, the Heels kept making turnovers, giving Duke the opportunity to score 18 points, contributing to their seven point lead going into the half.

But the Tar Heel defensive effort in the second half disrupted Duke’s continued scoring attempts.

“I think the biggest thing, especially when we’re playing against a phenomenal team like Duke, is to just try and make them uncomfortable and run them off the spots where they’re really shooting the highest percentage,” said junior forward James Michael McAdoo.

So the Heels instituted a 1-3-1 zone defense that alternated with their usual man-defense. “It’s something new to them, so we threw it at them and it kind of flustered them,” said sophomore forward J.P. Tokoto, who finished the night with nine points and seven rebounds.

Duke’s field goal percentage dropped to just 35% while Carolina’s increased to 50%.

Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski commented on the swift change, saying, “They just played a great second half, and we just didn’t respond to it. The crowd, the team, the intensity, we just couldn’t match it. We just couldn’t match it. And that’s why they won.”

Before the shift, Carolina had relied on red-shirt senior, Leslie McDonald, for a majority of the points, finding very little help from the other veterans.

“Leslie showed up tonight,” said Williams, “Leslie has been struggling, to say the least, and he made some big baskets for us.”

McDonald, who ended the game with 21 points, attributed his performance to growing confidence. “The more times you see the ball go in the hole, you’re gonna be more confident,” said McDonald, “I just had to see the ball go in the hole, and that was it for me. I started gaining my confidence.”

And with his confidence came more pressure from Duke’s defense, one that most likely had not planned to defend McDonald much from the perimeter.

“The second half they were still pressuring me a little bit and Marcus was able to work. And that’s what I wanted,” said McDonald, “Not all the pressure to be on me, but to get the pressure off of Marcus and McAdoo.”

With McDonald alleviating some pressure, McAdoo’s second-half performance ended him with a double double. Marcus Paige, the sophomore point guard, struggled, going scoreless in the first half, but was able to turn things around at the break to score 13 points for the Heels.

“I was just letting them dictate how I played. Duke likes to pressure and extend their defense and I was letting that get to me,” said Paige “So I was pretty upset with myself at halftime. I wanted to make some contributions, and I was able to do that in the second half”

Usually alone in his free throw consistency, Paige was joined by freshmen Kennedy Meeks and Nate Britt who also were perfect on the night. Britt made six free throws, four of which were in the last minute of the game.

The Tar Heels, who have consistently struggled with free throws this season, went 20 for 31 from the line while Paige, who is 1st in the ACC with a free throw percentage of nearly 90%, sank the last two shots of the game, sealing the win for the Heels.

“To their credit, they really hit their free throws and really executed down the stretch,” said Krzyzewski, “They’re playing great and they have a really good basketball team, and you’re not going to beat them without two halves that are worthy of winning.

“And we played one half that was worthy of winning.”

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This article was written in compliance with the instructions of my creative sportswriting class.