After coming so very close to beating out the Duke Blue Devils and capturing an ACC title a year ago, the North Carolina Tar Heels took a step back and reflected on all that they had done. Even though they may not have had the talent and depth that the Blue Devils had at the time, they still managed to take one of the three meetings against them and battle them to the end of a disappointing ACC title game. On top of that strong play, they also had the hope that this year would be different, that they would get their turn with the stronger talent and greater depth. The Tar Heels entered this season as the preseason pay head favorites to win it all, not just within the ACC, but on the national landscape as well. Despite faltering early on,North Carolina still held the lead going in to their first game of the season against Duke on Wednesday night. Then, it happened.
With time ticking down in the fourth quarter of the Tar Heels first clash of the season with their biggest conference rivals, a familiar face came up big, as Austin Rivers nailed a three-pointer at the horn to give Duke an 85-84 road win over North Carolina. A game in which the Tar Heels seemed to control until the very end slipped out of their grasp with that final shot, snapping North Carolina’s school-record 31-game home winning streak. Rives scored a season-high 29 in the contest including six three-point shots, and the last actually came over the Tar Heels’ biggest defender in seven-footer Tyler Zeller in the final seconds. A stunned crowd at Chapel Hillwatched on as Rivers and the Betonline underdogs celebrated in a game that meant so much to both teams, and just like that, the Blue Devils are now tied with UNC for first in the ACC.
To say that Duke had been looking forward to this game may be an understatement, as a tough home overtime loss to unranked Miamicould be taken as a strong indication that they couldn’t wait to leave for North Carolina. The truth is that the Blue Devils have been excellent on the road this year, with both of their ACC losses coming in front of the crowd at the Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke still faces tough challenges in a home game against North CarolinaStateand a road date at FloridaState, but the Tar Heels don’t have it any easier with a home-and-home against Virginia Tech. The end result could very well be North Carolina and Duke playing for ACC supremacy when the two teams meet on the final day of the regular season, and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise regardless of what the per head experts say.
This rivalry has easily taken the spotlight as one of the biggest in college basketball betting over the past few years, one that some players fear to even wager on, and the atmosphere will be electric if these teams were to meet with an ACC title on the line. The Blue Devils drew first blood with Rivers’ dagger on Wednesday night, now the ball is inNorth Carolina’s court to respond.
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