Duke Tops Men's Basketball, 87-70

Saturday, February 1

Durham, N.C.

6:30 PM

North Carolina

13-10,6-5ACC

Duke

19-2,11-0ACC

North Carolina

Duke

Ven-Allen Lubin

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

February 1, 2025 | Men's Basketball

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By: Matt Bowers

DURHAM, N.C.—Second-ranked Duke hit 10 three-pointers, led from start to finish and dominated North Carolina, 87-70, on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils went on a 16-0 run early and got big games from Cooper Flagg, who tallied 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, and Kon Knueppel, who had 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting with five rebounds and five assists. Tyrese Proctor chipped in 17 points. Duke shot 50 percent (10 for 20) as a team from behind the three-point arc.

RJ Davis and Drake Powell led Carolina with 12 points apiece, while Seth Trimble scored 10 with five rebounds. The Tar Heels shot 64.3 percent in the second half after shooting under 30 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

The Blue Devils raced out to a big lead that grew to as many as 27 points in the first half and never looked back. It was Duke's largest win against UNC in Durham since an 82-50 victory on March 6, 2010.

"Our live ball turnovers are turning into pick-six plays for the opponent," Carolina head coach Hubert Davis said. "Giving teams – just for example, tonight, Duke gets 19 points off of 14 turnovers. Against good teams, that's just not going to work, and so just [we've] got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. At the beginning of the game, that was the one key that got us in a hole early."

The Tar Heels played much better offensively in the second half but couldn't dig out of their first-half hole. Four days after it scored only 21 points in the second half of a loss at Pitt, Carolina managed just 25 with nine turnovers in the first half on Saturday night and trailed, 47-25, at the break.

Duke expanded its lead and eventually led by 32 at 77-45 with 9:04 remaining in the game. UNC then held Duke without a basket for nearly nine minutes and went on a 17-2 burst but could never get closer than a 16-point deficit in the closing minutes.

It was UNC's highest second-half shooting percentage in a loss since a 64.3 percent performance in the second half of an 82-78 defeat to Clemson on January 30, 2018.

The Blue Devils won their 15th consecutive game this season and improved to 18-2 overall, 10-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference while snapping UNC's two-game winning streak in the series. Duke moved to 12-0 at home in 2024-25.

Carolina lost for the fourth time in five games, falling to 13-10, 6-5 ACC. The Tar Heels have lost three in a row on the road.

Duke shot 55.6 percent in the first half, 50.0 percent in the second half and 52.8 percent in the game. The Blue Devils used their height advantage and got to the line effectively, hitting 21 of 25 free throws while Carolina shot well but was just 11 for 14.

"Yeah, there's frustration," Hubert Davis said. "But I've told the guys this, and I specifically told them tonight, the only thing that you have control over in anything is how you react and how you respond. I told them, this is a great lesson in life. There are going to be speed bumps and traffic and wind and rain. How do you react, how do you respond, when it's a sunny day and when it's a windy day?

"The thing that I've been proud of with this team is its fight. It stays connected. It stays together. It competitively continues to move forward. My expectation is for us to continue to move forward. We don't play for another week, so this is a great week for us to regroup, to come together as a team, to practice, moving forward towards the stretch."

How It Happened
First Half
• For the third consecutive game, the Tar Heels started a four-guard lineup of Elliot Cadeau, Davis, Trimble, Ian Jackson and Ven-Allen Lubin.
• The Blue Devils forced three early UNC turnovers while hitting 6 of their first 10 shots, building a 15-6 lead at the first timeout.
• Duke used a 16-0 run over 3:20 to build a 25-6 lead. The Blue Devil advantage eventually ballooned to 27 points at 40-13.
• Carolina shot just 29.6 percent from the field as a team in the opening half while Duke shot 55.6 percent.
• Davis scored his first points with 4:54 left in the half and had five at the break.
• UNC committed nine first-half turnovers, five by Cadeau.

Second Half
• Jackson hit his first field goal of the night, a three-pointer, at the 14:14 mark of the second half. He finished with eight points on 2 of 6 shooting.
• Despite shooting 64.3 percent in the second half (18 of 28), the Tar Heels never got closer to Duke than 16 points after intermission.
• Carolina switched to a zone defense that was effective in contributing to the late, 17-2 run to make the score closer than it had been throughout most of the night.
• The Tar Heels got 25 points from their bench (to Duke's eight), including 12 from Powell (all in the second half), six from Jalen Washington and five from Jae'Lyn Withers.
• Washington returned to the lineup off the bench after missing Tuesday night's game at Pittsburgh due to injury.

Up Next
Carolina has a week off before returning to the court next Saturday (February 8) at home against Pitt at 4 p.m.