Duke prevails against North Carolina in ACC semifinal

ACC

Duke's Tyrese Proctor eyes North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau during the Blue Devils' 74-71 win Friday at the ACC basketball tournament in Charlotte. Top-ranked Duke advanced to Saturday's final against the Clemson-Louisville winner.

Duke is heading back to the ACC tournament final.

The Blue Devils withstood a fierce comeback effort by North Carolina to win 74-71 at Spectrum Center. Duke was without ACC Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, but coach Jon Scheyer was proud of how other players stepped up.

“I just thought our team had a great fight with Cooper and Maliq [Brown] being out,” Scheyer said. “And I thought Tyrese [Proctor] and Kon [Kuneppel] in particular, they just had a great presence about them. Our defense was great in the first half, and then in the second half, we knew they put more pressure on our defense with their transition and probably had a couple turnovers… but just you have to make enough winning plays, and tonight, we made one more winning play than they did to get the win. But a ton of respect for [North Carolina].”

Duke took a 21-point lead into halftime, and it seemed as if the Blue Devils could do no wrong. The second half was the opposite with Duke committing key turnovers that led to easy run outs for North Carolina.

The Tar Heels trimmed the Blue Devils’ lead to a point with 21 seconds remaining. After North Carolina fouled Proctor, he missed the front-end of a one-and-one and drew a shooting foul, sending Ven-Allen Lubin to the free-throw line with a chance to take the lead.

Miss.

Then, the drama unfolded.

On the second attempt, which went in, North Carolina forward Jae’Lyn Withers slid his foot into the paint prior to the free throw. The violation returned possession to the Blue Devils.

Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis would not comment about Withers’ blunder afterward. Rather, he talked about the pleasure of coaching his team.

“I can't be more proud of a team than I am right now,” he said. “I just love these guys to death. I love their fight. I love their togetherness. I love how close they are, and as I said before, I just told them after the game, I didn't think that I could be more proud of a group than I am right now, but I am even more proud, and I thank Jesus every day that I get to be their head coach.”

When asked directly about Withers’ mistake and what he did to lift his spirits, Davis said it’s a team effort.

“Well, it’s all of our spirits,” he said, “because we are a team. This is not individual. This is the University of North Carolina basketball team. So, when we win, we win together. When we lose, we lose together.”

Kuneppel said he had not seen anything like it in a moment with such gravity.

“I'd never seen anything like that before,” he said, “especially up one, so that was very interesting. But we were obviously pretty happy they didn’t even get a shot at tying it.”

North Carolina guard R.J. Davis said that he believes the way the Tar Heels have played down the stretch shows they are an NCAA Tournament team.

“We’re a special team,” he said. “I think the way, if you look at the trajectory of our whole season, where we dealt with adversity and perseverance, especially these last couple of weeks, we overcame all of that. And you couldn't ask for a better team than one that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all and comes out on top. So, I think that's a tournament team right there for you.”

Scheyer said Brown’s timetable to return from a dislocated shoulder suffered in the quarterfinal remains uncertain. Brown previously dislocated the shoulder earlier in the season. Scheyer also gave an update on Flagg.

“As far as Cooper goes, he is doing better,” Scheyer said. “He sprained his ankle, but all the imaging came back negative. He sprained it pretty good, though, like it’s a good sprain. I’m not breaking any news here, but he’s not going to play tomorrow. He can’t play. Our goal is to have him ready for the [NCAA] tournament, but we need to see how this weekend goes with the swelling and what he can do.”

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