The 233rd meeting between Duke and North Carolina may have quite possibly gone down as one of the best games between the two rival schools. Duke freshman Austin Rivers buried a buzzer-beating three-point shot that gave Duke their 20th win of the season, 85-84 over North Carolina (20-4, 7-2). Rivers scored a career high 29 points (Duke freshman record vs. UNC) while hitting six three-pointers in Duke-UNC debut, his sixth as Duke (20-4, 7-2) trailed by 2 in the final seconds of the game. The game winning three capped off a furious rally by Duke, who trailed by 10 points with less than three minutes left in regulation. Duke only led once in the 2nd half, coming with 0.00 on the clock.
“Obviously this is my favorite win I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Rivers said. “And it’s because we were down the whole game. The whole game, we were down. They just kept it on us — 10-point lead, 10-point lead. And then there was 3 minutes left and probably everybody thought we were going to lose, and we just kept fighting. To get a W, it’s amazing.”
With father, Doc Rivers, in the stands, Austin Rivers made good on his words before the game, that he was GOING to make an impact tonight. Rivers shot will live on in the lore of this fierce rivalry.
As expected, Duke relied on the three-point shot as they attempted 36 for the game, hitting 14. The improbable rally with about two minutes remaining in the game, will be talked about for as long as they play these games. Trailing 72-82, Duke went on a 10-2 run, closing the gap to an 82-84 game with 14 seconds to play. In that stretch, Tyler Thornton made his only three in 6 attempts, while Seth Curry made his fourth. Three of UNC’s final four possessions were turnover, turnover, 1-2 from the line. Then in a bizzare sequence, Ryan Kelly attempted a three as Duke trailed 80-83 that was turning out to fall well short of the basket, but North Carolina senior Tyler Zeller accidentally batted the ball into the Duke basket on a rebound attempt to bring the Blue Devils within a point with 14.2 seconds left after trailing all second half. The basket was ruled a three, but referee’s reviewed the play and changed it to a two point basket for Duke. After the strange tip-in, Zeller was fouled, but went 1-2 from the line, giving Duke a chance. That chance, proved successful, as Rivers sealed the game shut with his game-winning three over, you guessed it, Zeller.
North Carolina led by as many as 13 with 15:06 to play in the second half. At the same point in the first half Duke held its largest lead, by eight, but the Tar Heels controlled the rest of the half and led 43-40 at halftime.
“We fought like crazy to stay close,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And then in the last couple of minutes, we got hot.”
Krzyzewski described it as a “storybook” ending and said, “for me, that’s one of the best ones” in the history of the rivalry. Moments earlier, Williams had sat in the same chair, with tears welling in his eyes, trying to explain something he couldn’t.
“This one hurts,” North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said.
“Well there’s no question the first thing you have to is congratulate Duke. Congratulate Austin on a big-time game, and a big-time shot he made there at the end. We had some opportunities. The last three or four minutes, we had two turnovers and two or three missed free throws and they scored twice on seconds shots, and we didn’t secure the rebound.”
Williams was also quoted saying “If you start swallowing and wallowing and [have] sorrow for yourself and feeling frickin’ sorry for yourself, you ought to just go home. My team better by God come back and decide they’re going to be better. We lost a game that we could have won. If we don’t learn something from that and come back and be more determined, I’ve got the wrong group.”
Zeller had a spectacular first half with 19 first half points, but cooled in the second scoring only 4 to finish with 23 points for the game. He also grabbed 11 rebounds. Harrison Barnes, who was playing on an injured ankle that was bothering him leading up to the game against Duke, led UNC in scoring with 25 points, with 19 of those coming in the second half.
For Duke, Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry each scored 15 points a piece. The Blue Devils shot 44% from the field, including 39% from three on the night as tonight’s victory makes it 16 consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins.
Below is a multimedia recap from the game, including the game winner, photos, the voice of the Duke Blue Devils, Bob Harris’ radio call, and game highlights from the ACC Network. Enjoy!
By Chad Lykins
