Duke steals win after North Carolina goes away from its strengths
As Duke players mobbed each other in front of their bench Wednesday night after rallying for a 74-73 victory, TV cameras panned to the crowd and captured a shell-shocked North Carolina student mouthing the words, "What just happened?"
It was a fitting reaction after the Tar Heels somehow lost a game they controlled nearly from start to finish.
How did North Carolina lose despite dominating the offensive boards, scoring at will in transition and getting 29 points and 18 rebounds from forward Brice Johnson? How did Duke survive all that on the road despite trailing by as many as eight late in the second half and being down to a five-man rotation after Matt Jones' first-half ankle injury?
The answer is two-fold: The 20th-ranked Blue Devils played to their strengths down the stretch and the fifth-ranked Tar Heels went away from theirs.
Desperate to try to stay in a game his team trailed by a couple baskets most of the second half, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski repeatedly isolated either guard Grayson Allen or forward Brandon Ingram depending on who had the more favorable matchup. Allen recovered from having three straight shots swatted midway through the second half to score 23 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Ingram bounced back from missing 10 of his first 11 two-point shots to finish with 20 points on 7-for-21 shooting.
Both made some of the game's biggest baskets, Ingram scoring six straight points to bring Duke within two with five minutes remaining and Allen adding a key three-point play moments later and the crucial tying and go-ahead free throws with just over a minute to play.
The heroics of Ingram and Allen helped muddle the ACC title picture considerably. North Carolina falls into a first-place tie with Miami and Virginia, Louisville, Duke and Notre Dame are all within a game of the Tar Heels and Hurricanes.
There's little doubt North Carolina would still be alone atop the ACC had it kept force-feeding its big men in the paint.
One of Duke's big men was Ingram, a natural small forward who was too slight to hold his position against Johnson in the low post or keep him off the offensive glass. The other Duke big man was Marshall Plumlee, who played with four fouls for the final 10 minutes of the second half.
Those matchups were ripe for North Carolina to exploit, but the Tar Heels inexplicably chose to attack from the perimeter for long stretches of the second half. Johnson attempted only one shot in the final 12:55 of the second half, a dunk off a broken play. By contrast, guards Marcus Paige and Joel Berry attempted 10 shots during that same stretch even though they finished 4-for-22 for the game.
Why did Johnson disappear from North Carolina's offense? Some of the blame falls on Roy Williams for not designing plays for him. Some of the blame falls on Paige and Berry for not feeding the hot hand. And some of the blame falls on Johnson himself for not being aggressive enough, as evidenced by the one late-game possession when he did touch the ball in the block and appeared to have little interest in attacking Plumlee off the dribble.
North Carolina still had a chance to win on its final possession, but Williams chose not to call a timeout to set up a play with disastrous results. A disorganized possession ended with Derryck Thornton blocking an off-balance jumper by Berry, Allen grabbing the loose ball and Duke celebrating an unlikely victory
"I think you should always attack before the defense gets set," Roy says of final play. "I told the kids I should have called a timeout."
— Andrew Carter (@_andrewcarter) February 18, 2016
The disappointing loss reinforces the idea that there's something missing with this North Carolina team despite an abundance of talent. The Tar Heels won their first eight ACC games against a back-loaded schedule, but they're 0-3 against the other five teams within a game of first place and they still have clashes with Miami, Duke and Virginia still remaining.
North Carolina had an opportunity to answer questions about its toughness and commitment to defense on Wednesday by crushing the spirit of a Duke team that sometimes seemed undermanned and overmatched. Instead the Tar Heels let a win slip through their fingers to the disbelief of their fans and two rivals parted heading in different directions.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
