Flagged, Tagged And Bagged: Duke Wins In Chapel Hill, 82-69

And nails down the regular season at 19-1

Duke started out beautifully in Chapel Hill, building a 15 point lead and dominating UNC for much of the first half.

It didn't last though for a couple of reasons. First, Cooper Flagg had two early fouls, sat for a while then came back in and picked up his third on a drive with 3:18 to play in the half.

The biggest problem for Duke in the first half was turnovers as Duke had nine. Flagg and Sion James had three each and Maliq Brown, back in action after missing four games with his shoulder injury, had two, as did Kon Knueppel. The Tar Heels, by contrast, had just three.

RJ Davis had a brilliant first half for UNC with 15 points as Carolina closed out the first half on a 21-7 run.

Basically in the first half, UNC played with more intensity. As we said in our preview, the Tar Heels need this game much more than Duke and they played like it in the first half.

UNC started the second half just as hot with a 10-4 spurt that forced Jon Scheyer to call a timeout at 17:34 into the second.

Duke bounced back though with a 12-0 run and went up 63-59 on a Caleb Foster drive. Shortly after that, Brown hit a rare three to give Duke a 68-61 lead.

The Blue Devils were playing much better at this point and when Flagg had a spectacular block against Ven-Allen Lubin and James took the ball coast to coast to put Duke up 75-64, forcing UNC to call a timeout.

And really, that was about it for the Tar Heels.

Duke did buckle in the first half, and early in the second, but didn’t break.

In the end, most of UNC’s baskets were individual efforts: the Heels had eight assists on 25 baskets while Duke by contrast assisted on 14 of 31.

In the end, Duke’s superior talent and ability to bother UNC defensively made the difference. Flagg finished the game with no more fouls and played brilliantly in the second half.

Duke goes into the ACC Tournament as the top seed and may be #1 nationally next week if they win out in Charlotte.

As for UNC, their tournament prospects are still uncertain. Carolina really needed this one and was unable to pull it off.

Notes - UNC forced Duke to grit this one out...it was a very good but not dominant performance like we’ve seen recently...Maliq Brown took three threes in his return and hit two....the first was a huge momentum shot...Duke shot 56.4 percent overall and 47.4 from behind the line...also finished with an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers...in the end UNC shot 39.1 percent overall and 33.3 percent from behind the line...

• 5 halftime observations from No. 2 Duke men’s basketball’s regular-season finale at North Carolina
• Duke Pulls Away in 2nd Half, Beats UNC Men’s Basketball on Senior Night
• Duke beats UNC in RJ Davis’ last game in Chapel Hill
• Calls Mount Against Cooper Flagg After His Absence Makes Duke Better Against UNC