An uncomfortable win

In this season's first meeting of ACC rivals Duke and North Carolina, the Blue Devils came out on top with a 64-54 victory on North Carolina's turf, but it was an uncomfortable win for Duke fans.

UNC came into the game reeling, with a four-game losing streak, an 13-10 record, and a considerable gap away from preseason expectations. Duke, although statistically much better off, came in hungry, with a couple bad losses on the scorecard to be quickly forgotten if the Blue Devils could give the Tar Heels a knockout punch on their own homecourt.

Despite the 10-point edge that emerged over the last five minutes of play, though, which gave Duke the win, the Blue Devils did not do much to calm the concerns of a fan base that has already seen too often the chinks in the armor for Duke, which has spent the last few years getting bounced prematurely from the NCAA tournament.

The main story tonight was Duke's shooting woes. Despite the preseason hope that a couple new bigs (the Plumlee brothers) would help Duke get away from the concentration on perimeter scoring that has dominated the team for the last half-decade, the Blue Devils have spent much of this season firing from the outside. Senior Jon Scheyer (18.9 ppg), junior Kyle Singler (16.6 ppg), and junior Nolan Smith (18.1 ppg) have contributed the bulk of the scoring, with inside big men Brian Zoubek (7-foot-1, 5.1 ppg), Lance Thomas (6-8, 5.9 ppg) and Mason Plumlee (6-10, 4.6 ppg) merely cleaning up the boards.

Tonight was no exception, but once again, it wasn't as if Duke was trying to live and die by the 3; the Blue Devils took tons of shots inside early.

The stumbling Tar Heels just swatted them away.

Duke went into halftime (leading 28-27) having made only three 2-point field goals, with Singler's 3-for-3 and Scheyer's 3-for-5 marksmanship outside the arc accounting for the bulk of the points. The Tar Heels had to be feeling pretty good about themselves, because no team can sustain that 3-point shooting pace for a whole game. Luckily for Duke, UNC couldn't sustain its defensive pace inside the arc in the second half, either, which is where Duke made 10 shots after intermission and iced the game.

Duke ended the night shooting 13-for-51 on non-3-point field goals (25%) along with a UNC-crippling 9-for-18 on 3-pointers (50%), with six of the deep balls in the first half.

Duke also had the advantage on the boards, 51-42, which is where having those big guys helps, even if they can't score. Despite UNC blocking a terrific 12 shots, Duke gobbled up 23 offensive rebounds and cashed them in for 21 second-chance points. That, right there, is the victory. And a reason to remain hopeful when Duke's offensive inside game gets pummeled by a team of pretenders.

Scheyer ended the night with 24 points on 5-for-9 3-point shooting, and Singler had 19 on 4-for-5 shooting. He also had nine rebounds.

Mason Plumlee collected nine rebounds for Duke (6 offensive) and scored seven points, the biggest being a reverse two-handed jam that broke a late-game tie and put the visitors up for good.

Early on, UNC proved that it could dunk and run, but the only other thing it did with consistency was turn the ball over. The Tar Heels seemed to be moving too fast for themselves, with high-flying blocks certainly intimidating but not stopping the Duke attack. The Blue Devils, although not dominating, had the consistency edge early and had a slight lead until a couple UNC treys worked a tie at 20 with 8:26 left in the half.

Zoubek, Duke's 7-foot letdown, provided an excellent example of what Chris Ballard talks about in his book The Art of a Beautiful Game when he showed how completely inept he is at grabbing rebounds. With a massive wingspan and superior positioning under the basket, Zoubek continued to find ways to not come up with the ball (although, in an early exchange, he did make up for one whiff with coast-to-coast hoofing and a ferocious block at the other end).

UNC's offensive rebounds and put-backs were more than enough for the Tar Heels early, but Duke kept its nose in the game with some great hustle.

After UNC pulled ahead 24-23 with 3:38 left, scoring went back and forth through halftime, when both teams emerged playing the same game.

It was mind-boggling how many Duke shots bounced out of the basket when the Blue Devils were in close, but UNC was still reckless enough to not take control of the game.

Duke players weren't just getting their shots blocked; they were bungling their approaches to the point of defenders swatting the ball out of the air five feet from the source. But the Tar Heels could not pull ahead.

At the 16:02 mark, Duke got a basket inside, and the tide slowly began to turn away from Duke scoring by the deep threat to the balanced game that would win the second half for the Blue Devils. At 10:18, with the game tied at 43, Duke's inside production moved from dastardly to at least normal (which, as aforementioned, is not so much) with another score.

Duke was up 54-48 by the 4:34 mark, and a Scheyer 3 put Duke ahead 59-50 with two-and-a-half minutes to go.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devil defense did the work as UNC was held without a field goal for five minutes.

Duke fans were treated to the sight of former UNC star Tyler Hansbrough's mournful face, a sight Blue Devils supporters had not seen during his reign of Tobacco Road, as the game slipped away from UNC. Duke rose to 20-4 on the season, and 8-2 for first place in the ACC.

UNC, in falling to 13-11, had its first 11-loss season since 2003-2004.

This Saturday, Duke gets an immediate chance to defend its spot atop the ACC with a matchup against the conference's No. 2, Maryland (6-2). Duke won last year's contest by 41 points, but the quick Terp guards will probably be a bit more prepared this time. At least the Blue Devils aren't facing a team that's big inside, because, from the looks of tonight, these Dukies aren't quite ready.