Duke tops North Carolina 73-68

Posted On: February 14, 2013 By: Cliff Comments: (1)

The rivalry continued on Wednesday night when the Tarheels visiting Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on Duke and in typical fashion between the two teams the game was back and forth up until the final buzzer. A strong second half push by Seth Curry and Tyler Thornton led the Blue Devils past the Tarheels 73-68 in the first match up of the season between the storied rivals.

In the first half Duke was slowed down by foul trouble. Mason Plumlee quickly picked up two fouls and then had to play soft on defense so that he would not pick up his third early on. That allowed Carolina to dominate the boards and get easy buckets in the paint as well as points of second attempts. The foul trouble early on really let Carolina run their game plan easily and Duke found themselves down 33-29 at the half.

Mason was still able to put up Plumlee 18 points, 11 rebounds – while Quinn Cook scored 18 points and Rasheed Sulaimon finished with 13 for the Blue Devils. The guys really battled back in the second half and Carolina wasn’t able to knock down their shots late to get it to a one possession game. The Tar Heels were 13 of 23 from the free-throw line and missed 7 of 10 during a critical late stretch while falling to 1-4 this season against ranked opponents

It was a great win for the Blue Devils. Not only did they beat North Carolina but they did it on Coach K’s birthday.

There can’t be a let down now though. The team will travel up to Maryland for a game on Saturday. Games up there are always close and with Maryland leaving the conference I expect this game to come right down to the end as well.

@JustDukecom

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Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes