Duke survives furious UNC comeback as Blue Devils reach ACC Tournament final
READ MORE
2025 ACC Men’s Tournament
Follow all the action from the 2025 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Charlotte, NC, with updated scores, standings, game recaps and analysis from the team of writers from the News & Observer, Charlotte Observer and The State.
Expand All
Friday night’s ACC Tournament semifinal always held the possibility of an exciting sequel to the game in 2019 — the one where a Duke freshman phenom named Zion Williamson led the Blue Devils to a 1-point win in front of a raucous crowd in Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
The sequel was different, surely.
But maybe equally thrilling.
Officially, the Duke Blue Devils took charge of a back-and-forth affair after the game’s first seven minutes and didn’t relinquish the lead thereafter en route to a 74-71 win. But after concluding the first half on a 13-0 run — one in which Duke got after every loose ball and finished wide-open layups and looked disciplined and inspired — the Tar Heels somehow scraped back, cutting the game to as close as a point as early as 3:41 left in the contest.
The comeback — and the fight thereafter — sent the half-and-half crowd into a thundering tizzy that never relented.
The game was ultimately decided in the final five seconds. The sequence: Down 72-71, with 17 seconds left, Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis called a timeout and drew up a play that resulted in Ven-Allen Lubin receiving an entry pass and making a post move and getting fouled. Lubin missed the first free throw, and the second attempt was disqualified because of a lane violation by Jae’Lyn Withers.
Kon Knueppel received an inbounds pass thereafter, hit two free throws, and then the Tar Heels had 2.5 seconds to muster a game-tying 3. Hubert Davis drew up an RJ Davis curl, but a good Duke switch meant it was Lubin who took the 3-pointer that caromed off the rim as time expired.
Once the ball fell, the Duke players and coaches on the bench turned to the crowd with their arms raised as if they were all Russell Crowe from “Gladiator.” Everyone — undeniably everyone — was entertained.
Many — including the players — were surprised, too.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before, especially up one,” Knueppel said postgame. “That was very interesting. But yeah, we were obviously pretty happy.”
Said head coach Jon Scheyer: “I’m not sure that’s happened before. I’m trying to think back. I’m not sure in that setting, in that situation, where you saw that. … I think for tonight, to go through the last — the whole game but the last five minutes, I think we’re going to learn so much from this moving forward.”
The victory delivered the Blue Devils a trip to the ACC Tournament final on Saturday (8:30 p.m., ESPN) for a shot at a conference accolade Scheyer openly explained Thursday was not the end goal for this year’s group. That was a huge reason the third-year head coach opted not to play Duke’s freshman phenom this year — Cooper Flagg — after he rolled his ankle in Duke’s game Thursday. The decision tested the team’s mettle, no doubt.
The loss for the Tar Heels, conversely, flings their NCAA Tournament hopes into limbo, though many might consider such a fight against even a Flagg-less and Maliq Brown-less Duke dignified enough for an at-large bid.
Such instant prognostications are inevitable this time of year. That’s particularly true during a season when no one knows what to make of North Carolina — a team with only one Quad 1 win but with so many close losses to teams with Final Four aspirations.
Fifth-year senior guard RJ Davis asked whether he thought North Carolina was an NCAA Tournament team postgame. He answered predictably and resolutely.
“I think we’ve seen in the past couple weeks that we are a tournament team,” said Davis, who finished with 8 points. “I think if you look at the trajectory of our whole season, the way we dealt with adversity, perseverance, and especially these last couple of weeks, we overcame all of that. You couldn’t ask for a better team than that, that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all and comes out on top.
“I think that’s a tournament team for you right there, because that’s what March is about.”
Lubin led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting and added 10 rebounds. Duke was led by freshman Knueppel, who finished with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists. Four other Blue Devils ended in double figures: Khaman Maluach (13 points), Sion James (12), Patrick Ngongba (12) and Tyrese Proctor (11).
A Tar Heel comeback for the ages
The nail in the proverbial coffin seemed hammered in early before a ferocious Tar Heel comeback effort.
How early? First-half early.
After a Lubin 3-point airball with the shot clock winding down — only his second 3-point attempt all season — the Blue Devils went on a 13-0 run to end the half, a run that spanned the first half’s final 4:42. In that stretch, Duke out-hustled North Carolina to loose balls and had the crowd on its side. That was evident after Knueppel dove for a ball to force a jump ball and the expressive Charlotte native and Duke freshman guard Isaiah Evans did his impression of Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn — as if he were putting a seat belt over his lap.
The halftime score saw Duke up 45-24. Duke’s largest lead of the contest was 24 points.
North Carolina fought back valiantly in the second half, though. The late-game fight that the team showed a few months earlier in the same arena — a close loss to Florida in the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte that featured a ferocious comeback effort — was on display. They did it with breakneck speed and a motivated Seth Trimble getting to the free-throw line.
You could see similarities to that December contest everywhere — none more obvious than a Trimble and-1 layup with 4:19 to go to cut it to six. Then an Elliot Cadeau layup cut the game to four with just over two minutes remaining. Then a Drake Powell free throw cut it to three.
The Tar Heels had several chances to tie the contest. One was a Powell 3-pointer that caromed off the right side of the rim with a minute left. Such possibility lurked around every possession, every free throw, every dribble, until the final buzzer.
Such ingredients usually are traits in an instant classic. Mix in the visuals that will endure: Duke’s elated screams at the crowd. UNC’s disbelief. The postgame scene just outside the Tar Heels’ locker room, when Hubert Davis stood shoulder-to-shoulder and answered questions with Withers, who struggled for the first time in months, finishing with 2 points in the stat sheet and the violation at the end.
Time will distill this game’s memory, as it always does. But in Friday’s afterglow, Hubert Davis had a clear parting message.
“I played four years here, 12 years in the NBA, nine years as an assistant, and now four years as a head coach, and I can’t be more proud of a team than I am right now,” Davis said. “Just love these guys to death. I love their fight. I love their togetherness. I love how close they are.
“As I said before, I 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.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Duke survives furious UNC comeback as Blue Devils reach ACC Tournament final."
.JPG)
