It isn’t often the case that a highly anticipated match up of rivals ends in a blow out. And it especially is surprising when the visiting team dominates the home team in the Duke-North Carolina rivalry.
Mason Plumlee was as dominate as Duke was in the Blue Devils 69-53 win over North Carolina.
That is exactly what the Blue Devils did cruising from the opening tip on route to a 69-53 victory. Duke jumped out to a quick 14 point lead thanks in part to a hot shooting start from Seth Curry who finished with 20 points on 8-13 shooting.
In what was a pleasant surprise was the play of Mason Plumlee who hasn’t been very good over the last month, but against the Tar Heels he returned to form and finished the game with 23 points and 13 rebounds in his final regular season game against arch rival North Carolina and it couldn’t have ended any better.
The Blue Devils were much better in two areas where they had struggled lately. Defensively against the Tar Heels. Duke was able to hold North Carolina 33 percent shooting and only allowed a team that had found a bit of a stroke from beyond the arc to only one three point made. Duke also controlled the boards out rebounding the Tar Heels 31-27.
Just as surprising as Duke’s dominate performance was the fact that Ryan Kelly only scored 8 points and was not quite the player he has been over the last two games. Still his presence opens things up for Plumlee and it appears for at least this game it helped him get back to the type of performance that made him a National Player of the Year candidate.
Duke came into the game trying to continue its push to hit its stride and return to the form they showed earlier in the season prior to Ryan Kelly’s injury. While they aren’t quite there yet, this performance is definitely a step in the right direction.
The Blue Devils will head into the ACC Tournament as the No. 2 seed. Miami claimed the ACC Regular season title outright with their victory over Clemson. It is Duke, however, who will likely be the favorite to cut down the nets in Greensboro based on how they have played since Kelly’s return.
There are still areas and players that need to step and be stepped up. Rasheed Sulaimon needs to play with more consistency going forward but you have to like the looks of the Duke team that showed up against North Carolina.
This is a team that could very well get better during the ACC Tournament but, as is the case with any tournament you need all hands on deck for a potential three games in three days. In the mean time Duke fans can bask in a regular season sweep of the hated Tar Heels.
The team on the other hand may have a nigh then its back to business, but at least they finished the regular season strong.
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