CHAPEL HILL — No. 5 North Carolina leads No. 10 Duke 43-40 here at halftime at the Smith Center. Some thoughts and observations from the first half:

-- Duke led throughout the first half and by as many as eight at one point. But the Tar Heels kept chipping away and chipping away and they took their first lead with about a minute to play on a pair of Harrison Barnes free throws that put UNC ahead 41-40. The Heels forced a Duke turnover near the end of the half, with about seven seconds left, and Barnes passed ahead to Reggie Bullock for a lay-up just before time expired. The crowd here erupted.

-- Both teams played at an extremely high level during the first half. Duke had seven turnovers, most of them late in the half, and UNC just three turnovers. The Blue Devils are shooting 44.8 percent, but they’ve made 7 of their 17 3-pointers. The Heels, meanwhile, aren’t shooting particularly well – just 41.7 percent. But UNC has 10 offensive rebounds, which is part of the reason why it has attempted seven more shots than Duke (36-29).

-- Tyler Zeller led all scorers with 19 points during the first half. That’s more than he’s scored in 17 games this season. Zeller nearly had a double-double in the first half, as he finished with eight rebounds. He has made 7 of his 14 attempts from the field, and has four of his team’s 10 offensive rebounds.

-- As expected, Duke is taking its chances from the outside. The Devils have already attempted 17 shots from behind the 3-pointer. Duke attempted just 12 shots inside the 3-point line during the first half. The Devils were 6-of-12 on 2-pointers. UNC has outscored Duke 20-6 in the paint.