Off the cuff: Duke took a lot of bad shots - unfortunately for UNC many of them went in. I really don't think firing uncontested threes from five feet behind the arc is what basketball minds had in mind when they dreamed up the three pointer. But that's what the Devils needed to do to beat the Tar Heels who are more talented under the basket. Duke outscored Carolina by 39 points behind the three-point line. That's hard to overcome but the Tar Heels had done it and had the game in hand up by 10 with 2:30 left. A lot of things had to go wrong for Carolina and right for Duke, and it all happened. The Tar Heels turned the ball over twice, one inexplicably on a weak pass by Marshall and another on a charging call on Barnes. The Devils hit three three-pointers, got two offensive rebounds that resulted in points and got a gift basket by Zeller, who accidently tipped in a wild shot by Duke's Kelly. Still, Carolina would have won had Zeller hit his free throws. "This one hurts," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "Our kids competed and did a lot of good things... We just made some mistakes at the end - that's the bottom line." Indeed. Henson said for the Tar Heels to play as well as they did for 37 minutes only to fall apart in the last three minutes is "depressing." But he added, "We'll see 'em again, so we'll be ready." I suggest that Rivers keeps his tongue in his head next time. The Heels travel to Durham on March 3 and could see them in the ACC tournament a few days later. Who knows, maybe they'll play yet again in the NCAA tournament. |
|