With their archrival Duke Blue Devils in town Saturday night, the North Carolina Tar Heels knew they needed to turn in their best effort.
UNC’s effort resulted in turning a 15-point first half deficit into a 56-49, second half lead. North Carolina took advantage of Duke superstar Cooper Flagg having three fouls, attacking the basket and making shots at will.
That 7-point lead the Tar Heels obtained came just over four minutes into the second half, when center Ven-Allen Lubin converted a beautiful layup in the paint. All the momentum was with UNC and, despite there being plenty of time left, the Dean Dome crowd had plenty to be excited about.
Five minutes after Lubin’s basket, Kon Knueppel gave Duke a 61-59 advantage it never relinquished, en route to an 82-69 victory. North Carolina (20-12, 13-7 ACC ) only scored 13 more points after Lubin’s layup, something that can’t happen against a good team like Duke (28-3, 19-1).
“I just thought that our shots didn’t fall,” Drake Powell said during postgame interviews. “I think the right players took the right shots at the right time. We generated good looks, they just didn’t fall.”
Lubin, who scored six second-half points and snagged a couple rebounds, pointed to the Tar Heels‘ cold stretch due to them running out of gas – and the Blue Devils creating effective transition opportunities.
“Duke got out in transition when we didn’t take care of the ball, we didn’t make the shot,” Lubin said. They just kind of got out and ran. What kind of surprised us a little bit, was the way they (Duke) pushed the ball up the floor and got easy baskets off of that. I think that’s kind of what happened, kind of exterminated the lead for us.”
“It also kind of felt like we ran out of gas,” Lubin continued. “We try to keep it in our mind, so we know that we have to keep pushing. We have to do whatever it takes – in order for us to get the results that we want. Whether it was a little bit of fatigue or a little frustration, or our bodies were a little worn out towards the end of the game, we wanted to push through it.”
UNC now turns its attention to the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, which starts Tuesday, March 11 at 2 p.m. with Notre Dame-Pitt. North Carolina will play the winner of that game Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Drake Powell, Ven-Allen Lubin detail cold stretch costing UNC vs. Duke
