Quick Hitters - North Carolina vs. Duke

Isaac Schade presents Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s home 91-73 win over Duke on Senior Night.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Mar 7, 2021 1:55 AM EST

Quick Hitters from North Carolina’s 91-73 home win over Duke on Senior Night.

Highlights:

Condensed Game:

That’s a big-time statement win to end the regular season against your rival and roll into the ACC Tournament as the six seed. The victory solidifies Carolina’s NCAA Tournament hopes and likely was the final nail in the coffin of Duke’s (barring a miraculous conference tournament run).
The Tar Heels got off to a fast start and never looked back. Caleb Love’s three-pointer with 14:21 left in the first half gave Carolina a 14-4 lead. From that moment on, the lead was double digits the rest of the game. That means the Tar Heels led by double digits for 34:21 of the total 40:00. Or said another way, that’s 2061 of 2400 total seconds, which equates to 85.9 percent of the game. The closest the deficit got in the second half was 13, but Kerwin Walton hit a three less than a minute later to push the lead back to 16. Here's the Walton three:

It’s always interesting to see how the first couple minutes of game action will play out on Senior Night with all the seniors starting. Regular starters Garrison Brooks (senior) and Leaky Black (junior) were joined by seniors KJ Smith, Walker Miller, and Andrew Platek. In the pre-game ceremonies, Sterling Manley also walked to midcourt to join them since he was part of their class. Wouldn't you know it, Miller set the tone for the game by drawing an offensive foul on the very first possession. When the rest of the regular starters checked in 1:10 into the game, the score was 2-0 Tar Heels.
In a scary moment while the seniors were all playing, Garrison Brooks rolled his ankle on Carolina’s first offensive possession. Brooks went up for a jumper and landed on Matthew Hurt’s foot (who hadn’t given Brooks space to land). Brooks went to the locker room, but eventually came back in with 13:02 left in the half. He looked to be moving a little gingerly at first, but still played 24:31 and finished with 14 points (6-9 shooting), five rebounds, three assists, one block, and just one turnover. Oh and by the way…
Brooks also hit two three-pointers. It was the first time in his career he’s hit multiple threes in one game. He picked a heck of a time to do it. Here's both of them:

There were some other special Senior Night moments. KJ Smith deftly weaved his way through traffic for a lay-up. Perhaps in what was the most special moment of the entire night, Sterling Manley checked in for the first time all season and had a dunk off an alley-oop from Platek and then a block on the next Duke possession. What resilience from that young man to work his way back from injury to be able to get back in a game. Here's the Manley sequence:

By the way, North Carolina has been phenomenal on Senior Night in the Roy Williams era: 15-3 overall and 7-2 against Duke.

Tonight’s win was just the next chapter in the roller coaster ride that has been the last several weeks. Poor performance at Clemson, big win at Duke, another poor performance at Virginia, back-to-back wins including the dismantling of Louisville, the Marquette clunker, the comeback against Florida State, the disappointing loss at Syracuse, and now a dominating victory over Duke to end the regular season. Who knows what will come next? We’ll find out on Wednesday.
Coming into today, although Duke had eight ACC losses, they hadn’t lost by more than seven points. Tonight they did. 18 points to be exact.
Honestly, as exhilarating as a tight rivalry game is, everyone’s health is in better condition after a blowout. Plus, blowing out your rival is fun, right? Speaking of which, the last time the Tar Heels beat Duke by more than 18 points was February 5, 1998, when Carolina won by 24 (97-73).
Here's the moment Armando Bacot put the Tar Heels up by 20 for the first time:

I had suggested pre-game that Carolina’s ability to hold Matthew Hurt in check again (he scored just seven in the first meeting) would be one of the keys to the game. Hurt didn’t score his first points until there were just 78 seconds left in the first half. He ultimately finished with 14, but the game was already essentially out of reach by the time he started scoring.
On the flip side, I also suggested pre-game that Carolina likely wouldn’t shoot as well from three-point range as the first game against Duke. Boy was I (thankfully) wrong. 8-for-18 isn’t quite 10-15, but close enough. Especially because Duke made three fewer threes on nine more attempts.
Part of that three-point attack was Kerwin Walton getting back to form. The freshman hit his first five shot attempts, three of which were three-pointers. Walton was one of three Tar Heels to finish for the team lead with 18 points (Love and Bacot were the others). In the words of Randy Quaid in Independence Day, “Hello boys, I’m baaaaaaaack.”
Similarly, free throw shooting was a plus for Carolina, finishing 21-for-26, including making their first 10. By the way, Kerwin Walton doesn’t have many attempts this year, but he’s made 16 of 17. Let’s get that man to the line more often.
The Tar Heels continue to share the ball well. They had nine helpers on their first 11 field goals, coming from eight different players. Carolina finished with 21 assists on 31 baskets (67.7 percent assist rate). They’ve now been over 50 percent in seven of the last eight games and over 60 percent in four of the last six. Here's a beautiful give-and-go from Black to Sharpe:

Not sure why, but Carolina just can’t seem to get the turnovers under control. For the third game in a row, the team finished with 20 or more and have averaged exactly 20 in the last 4 games. The curious thing is that (other than against Syracuse) UNC continues to win when they turn the ball over at a high volume. For the season, the Tar Heels are oddly 4-1 when they have 20 or more turnovers.
The Tar Heels won the overall rebounding battle 38-31, the exact same tally as the last time the teams met. Weirdly, Duke had more offensive rebounds than Carolina (12-8). Why is that weird? Because it’s the first time this season that UNC has been outrebounded on the offensive glass.
Caleb Love didn’t have quite the scoring volume as his historic performance at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but everything else was on par. At Duke he had 25 points, today it was 18. He had the exact same number of assists (seven) and finished with one less turnover (four).
The Tar Heels had their way inside early. Duke tried everything: bringing double teams, bringing in little-used Patrick Tape, going zone. None of it worked. The Carolina success inside really opened things up for shooters resulting in a wide open three for Caleb Love in the first non-front court basket of the day.
There was a nice defensive stretch for Carolina immediately after Love gave the team their first double-digit lead. Here’s Duke’s next six possessions: shot clock violation, shot clock violation, turnover, turnover, made shot, turnover. Honestly, the one basket Duke did make didn’t even go in, but Kessler was called for a goaltending violation. In that stretch the lead grew five more points to 15.
It took the Blue Devils 12:50 of game time to make it double-digits in the scoring column.
The first half was quite clean. Neither team made it into the bonus. Duke committed six fouls, and Carolina just three.
Leaky Black had several nice moments in the second half. With the shot clock winding down, his active hands dislodged the ball from Wendell Moore. Moore eventually recovered but hoisted up an errant, end-of-shot-clock prayer. Black swooped across the lane to secure the rebound and lead the break. He eventually passed to Caleb Love who found Armando Bacot for the transition layup. A few minutes later Black, apparently inspired by Love’s recent exploits, added a chase down block to thwart a fast break attempt. Here's the block:

The Tar Heels will now sit and wait to find out who their first opponent will be in the ACC Tournament, either Notre Dame or Wake Forest. Carolina won their lone matchup against each team this season, although both were at home, and the Notre Dame win was by just one point. The Irish also just knocked off Florida State.
Make sure to stay tuned for any news on the health of Garrison Brooks’ ankle heading into Wednesday.

Box Score

Roy Williams postgame press conference

Players postgame press conference

Garrison Brooks

Armando Bacot

Kerwin Walton

Caleb Love

Carolina moves on next to the ACC Tournament, where they will be the six seed. Here's the bracket:

Remember to check in for Quick Hitters after every North Carolina basketball game. Next up is the ACC Tournament. As the six seed, the Tar Heels will start play against either Notre Dame or Wake Forest on Wednesday. Tip is at 9:00pm ET on ACC Network.

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