87-70, that was the final score of Duke’s win over Carolina, but the game wasn’t even that
close, as Carolina failed to meet the moment, they failed to meet the fight and got blown out by their arch-rival, in what felt like the beginning of the end for the 2024-25 season. Duke built a 47-25 halftime lead, on the back of multiple first-half runs, including a 16-0 run, and an 11-0 run, as they built a 27-point lead at one point in the first half. Cooper Flagg was the best player on the floor, putting together a 21-point, 8 rebound, 7 assist performance, in his lone game in Durham in the rivalry, as thoroughly outplayed RJ Davis, who was seeking his fourth win in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils scored their 87 points on 53% shooting from the field, shot 50% from behind the arc on 10 makes, and converted on 21 of 25 foul shots, to put together arguably their best offensive performance against a power conference opponent this season, in their 15th straight win.
That first paragraph might lead you to believe that this is a Duke blog site, and not a UNC one, but that’s not the case at all, there’s just not a lot of nice things to say about the way Carolina played tonight. Going into the game, it was clear that Duke was the better team. They were bigger than UNC, and they were faster than UNC, but it was more than that tonight. This game usually brings out the best in both teams, but Carolina left its competitive spirit back in Chapel Hill, getting run out of the gym by nearly the first timeout of the game, where Duke had already built a 15-6 advantage. The box score would suggest that Carolina played well, they shot 47% from the field, they were 7-19 from behind the arc, they converted on 11-14 free throws, they won the rebounding battle, and they were outscored 32-30 in the paint. But they turned it over 14 times, which led to 19 points for Duke, and that was too much to overcome.
The loss drops Carolina to 13-10 on the season and just 6-5 in the ACC. With tonight’s loss, Carolina is now 1-9 in Quad 1 games, and with tonight’s loss, it’s hard to see any bracketologist having UNC in the field when they update their brackets tomorrow morning, Here’s what to take away from tonight’s loss at Duke:
Turnovers: Carolina turned it over 14 times, leading to 19 points for Duke, and fueled both of their game-changing runs in the first half. Elliot Cadeau really struggled to protect the basketball, turning it over 5 times, all in the first half. Every starter outside of RJ Davis committed at least one turnover, and you knew going into the game, that UNC couldn’t afford to commit live ball turnovers, which led to points going the other way. In Carolina’s back-to-back losses, turnovers played pivotal in both, and that’s as big a reason why they fell short to Pitt on Tuesday night, and Duke on Saturday night.
Half-Court Defense: Carolina never took Duke out of what they wanted to do on the offensive end of the floor, allowing Duke to shoot 53% from the field, and 50% from three. They struggled with floor balance, seemingly being out of position, every time they doubled Flagg when catching the ball in the post. Their lack of pressure allowed them to drive the ball time and time again, forcing the defense to collapse, leaving Duke’s shooters wide open. Hubert Davis didn’t press until the 14:14 mark of the second half, but by then the result had already been determined.
2-3 Zone: For the first time all season, Carolina played 2-3 zone, and in his postgame interview with Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network, Davis stated that they’d play more of it moving forward. Carolina played zone for 7 possessions, and Duke was 0-5 from the field, with a turnover. The only points that they scored while UNC was in the zone, came at the foul line, after grabbing an offensive rebound, At this point, if they aren’t going to commit to full-court pressing, you have to try something, because Carolina’s defensive regression is as big a reason for the four-game losing streak as anything else that’s wrong with the team.
Jalen Washington: The big man returned after missing Tuesday’s game at Pittsburgh, and put together a solid performance, scoring 6 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in 17 minutes of action. His minutes were limited by first-half foul trouble, which saw him pick up 2 fouls by the under-12 timeout. With the struggles of Ven-Allen Lubin, it’ll be interesting to see if Davis reinstates him in the starting lineup next Saturday.
Drake Powell: The lone bright spot from the loss was Drake Powell, who scored 12 points off the bench, on 5-8 shooting from the field, including going 1-3 from behind the arc. He scored all 12 of his points in the second and was the leading force behind an 18-2 run that made the score look respectable. Powell has enjoyed an up-and-down first season in Chapel Hill, but that type of second-half performance should give him some confidence to build off on moving forward.
Quad 1: Carolina entered last night among the Last Four In, in terms of Joe Lunardi’s NCAA Tournament projection, but after falling to 1-9 in Quad 1 games, it’s hard to fathom that they’ll be in the projected NCAA Tournament field moving forward. With the loss last night, UNC is 20-31 in Quad 1 games under Hubert Davis, and 2-18 in the years that they either outright missed the NCAA Tournament altogether, or were projected to miss the Big Dance.
Up Next: Carolina doesn’t have a midweek game this week, and that’s probably a good thing all things considered. They return to action next Saturday when they host Pittsburgh at 4 PM on ESPN2.
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