Sports Freshman Kon Knueppel scored 17 functions to abet No. 2 Duke beat rival North Carolina 82-69 on Saturday night and clinch the outright Atlantic Drift Convention unprecedented-season title.
Cooper Flagg added 15 functions, 9 rebounds and six assists no topic first-half of evil trouble for the Blue Devils (28-3, 19-1).
Duke blew a 15-level first-half of lead and trailed by seven midway early after the atomize, but replied with 12 consecutive functions to turn the game and silence a roaring opposed crowd.
The Blue Devils are now in set to rise to No. 1 in Monday’s AP High 25 ballotwith high-ranked Auburn shedding its past two video games.
Fifth-year senior RJ Davis scored 20 functions in his remaining home game for Tar Heels (20-12), who were blown out in the first assembly but replied with some distance more resilience this time ahead of Duke asserted aid watch over to stretch out the lead in the rest seven minutes.
Takeaways Duke: The Closing Four popular performed the first 19-1 unprecedented-season slate for the reason that ACC moved to 20 video games in 2019-20.
UNC: The Tar Heels had won six straight coming in with their easiest play of the season to play their methodology aid into better positioning for an NCAA portray. However this became once their closing particular probability so that you might add a resume-topping win to abet that case.
Key moment UNC led 59-Fifty three when Duke made its transfer with 12 straight functions in a 15-2 burst that place the Blue Devils ahead to cease. That integrated Knueppel’s backdoor layup for the lead, whereas versatile defender Maliq Brown had a wide 3-pointer in his return from injury that pushed Duke to a 68-61 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left.
Key stat UNC missed 22 of its closing 27 shots in the rest 15-plus minutes as Duke made its transfer.
Up subsequent The ACC Tournament begins Tuesday in Charlotte. Duke opens play because the 1-seed in Thursday’s quarterfinals. UNC is the 5-seed and will play in Wednesday’s 2nd round.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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