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Tar Heel phenoms Harrison Ingram and Armando Bacot scribbled their Hancocks all over the latest chapter of Duke and UNC’s storied rivalry, combining for 46 points on 18-25 shooting in a game UNC led by double digits nearly the entire second half and ultimately claimed 94-83 from Chapel Hill.
North Carolina certainly brought the energy needed to win college basketball’s fiercest rivalry, as the Heels’ fourth-ranked defense swarmed early and fueled punishing opportunities in transition — the average UNC possession lasted just 10 seconds in the opening six minutes. Eleven seconds after a Jared McCain layup, UNC’s star freshman point guard Elliot Cadeau surged down the floor and found an open Cormac Ryan, who nailed Carolina’s first triple of the game that gave his team an early 13-8 lead.
Jeremy Roach, one of three Blue Devils with 20-points Saturday, found the range with consecutive triples and tied the game at 22. However, Carolina’s pesky defense once again fueled an immediate response — UNC outscored Duke 19-7 on the afternoon in points off turnovers — as Ryan poked free a steal near mid-court and converted a layup through contact in transition to cap off an 8-1 run. A balanced scoring approach remained fruitful for the Heels, with six players scoring at least four points by the break, and a Bacot layup sent UNC into the locker room up 45-35.
Bacot remained hot out of the locker room, joining with Ingram to take complete control of the second-half UNC offense. The duo combined UNC’s first 12 points after intermission, with Ingram splashing a pair of contested triples while Bacot converted three tries in the post and continued to dominate his interior counterpart Kyle Filipowski. Bacot’s final basket in that stretch, a pretty left-handed hook shot along the baseline, gave the Tar Heels 57-46 lead entering the second half’s first media timeout.
Despite his immortalizing afternoon in Chapel Hill, Ingram proved he wasn’t above the dirty work either, rolling to the tan hardwood up 10 with six minutes remaining for an offensive rebound and flinging the loose ball back toward a well-placed Tar Heel guard. The massive hustle play allowed UNC to attack a scrambling Duke defense, and Cormac was left wide open in the left corner to connect on yet another three.
Trailing by nine and searching desperately for a way back with less than a minute remaining, Duke received a lifeline from the review table, as the officials determined that R.J. Davis committed a hook-and-hold penalty against Duke’s Kyle Filipowski. Receiving two free throws and the ball back, Duke could trim the deficit to just four in a matter of seconds, but North Carolina’s elite defense stepped up once again. Braving a deafening roar from the Chapel Hill faithful, Filipowski could only manage a split at the line, and a botched Blue Devil inbounds routine saw North Carolina force an eleventh turnover and quash Duke’s fleeting comeback bid.
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