CHAPEL HILL Duke's dominant 69-53 victory against North Carolina here on Saturday night might been expected in the middle of February, when the teams played for the first time in Durham in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But it wasn't expected now. Not at the Smith Center. Not after the Tar Heels' late-season surge since changing their starting lineup, and not after the Blue Devils' recent struggles in hostile road environments, and their continued adjustment to return of Ryan Kelly.

After so much early-season turmoil, and after so many Tar Heels' supporters had "abandoned ship," as UNC coach Roy Williams put it on Friday, the Heels had a chance, with a victory, to tie Duke for second place in the ACC.

Just a few minutes after tip-off, though, UNC's focus might not have been on winning, but instead on just getting back into the game. Duke (27-4, 14-4 ACC) scored the first 14 points, a dizzying stretch of dominance that considerably reduced the decibel level inside the Smith Center.

"It was like we weren't even out there," said James Michael McAdoo, the Heels' sophomore forward.

Nearly 37 minutes remained after Duke scored the game's first 14 points. Looking back, though, it was all but over then. The Tar Heels (22-9, 12-6) never cut the Blue Devils' lead into single digits, never really made Duke uncomfortable and never seriously threatened to make a game of it.

For Duke, this was another opportunity to build momentum amid the return of Kelly, the senior forward who missed 13 games after suffering a broken foot in January. Kelly scored 36 points in his first game back, last week against Miami, and then finished with 18 against Virginia Tech.

He was far less productive here on Saturday and finished with eight points. Yet his presence alone caused problems.

"We kind of figured they would be keyed in on him," said Mason Plumlee, the Duke senior forward who finished with a game-high 23 points. "He had about 50 points in the last two games. And I thought he still played well, (and) that's not easy when guys are gunning for you.

"We have a good balance between myself, Seth (Curry) and Ryan, and then when Quinn (Cook) is scoring, too, it's hard to defend."

Indeed it was for the Heels, who at times failed to defend all of those players. Curry, who finished with 20 points, dominated early, and made his first eight shots of the game. He made long 3-pointers. He made medium-range jump shots. He made runners in the lane. He made one shot while falling backwards.

"That half was unbelievable, really," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Curry missed his final two shots of the first half - the only blemishes on a performance people will remember for a while. By then, though, those missed shots didn't matter much. Curry had 18 points by halftime, and Duke led 42-24.

Needing a surge to start the second half, the Tar Heels didn't produce one. And that's when they couldn't stop Plumlee, either. He scored Duke's first 10 points of the second half. Six of those points came on two three-point plays off of alley-oops.

"Seth's performance in the first half - he was just the best player on the court," Krzyzewski said. "And in the second half, we had the best player on the court in Mason. ... It just turned out that in those two halves, those kids were two of the difference-makers."

For UNC, this was another opportunity to prove how far it had come in the past month since Williams began using a four-guard starting lineup. The Tar Heels entered Saturday on a six-game winning streak - their longest of the season - but Williams' greatest fear about a guard-heavy lineup might have been realized.

"One of the characteristics of this team the last three weeks was we made shots," Williams said.

But it didn't against Duke. Not this time. The Tar Heels shot just 33.9 percent, their second-worst percentage of the season. It brought back memories of poor shooting performances in losses at Texas, at Indiana and at Virginia. Duke shot 69.2 percent in the first half, and 55.1 percent overall.

UNC's first 3-pointer on Saturday didn't come until P.J. Hairston made one with about five minutes to play. The crowded erupted in its loudest cheer of the night, and there was still hope.

But not for long. Cook, Duke's sophomore guard, made a layup to push the lead back up to 16, and Dexter Strickland, a senior playing in his final game in the Smith Center, missed a layup on the other end for UNC. After that, Cook, who finished with 12, made another runner in the lane - this one right as the shot clock expired.

McAdoo led UNC with 15 points, and Hairston had 14. The Heels never did get going from the outside - not even late - and made just one of its 14 3-point attempts.

While Duke celebrated, UNC's Reggie Bullock characterized his team's reaction to defeat.

"I feel like we're going to come out more hungry," he said.

This wasn't about hunger, though. From the start, Duke simply imposed its will - "hit us right in the mouth," Williams said - and UNC, as much as it wanted, never recovered. The Heels didn't make many shots, either. During one late sequence, they missed three consecutive shots from about three feet.

By then, it was long over. After Cook's layup with three minutes to play, UNC called a timeout. The Smith Center began to empty.