Filed under: Duke, ACC, North Carolina
Seth Curry made his first Duke-Carolina game one to remember. Nolan Smith made his last one at Cameron one no one would forget.And that was just the second half.
Curry scored 22 points, Smith led both teams with 34, and the duo combined for 41 in the final 20 minutes as the Blue Devils rallied past North Carolina in a second-half surge, ousting the rival Heels 79-73 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
What a way to say goodbye, Nolan Smith.
The senior's 34 points marked a career high in his final home game against North Carolina.
Duke needed almost every one of them.
The Blue Devils fell behind 8-0 in the game's opening minutes and trailed by as many as 16 points with 32 seconds to play in the first half. The Tar Heels controlled the paint and kept Duke off balance with its high-speed transition offense and an array of nifty passes from freshman point guard Kendall Marshall.
The final 20 minutes belonged to Duke and its backcourt combo of Smith and Seth Curry, who sat out last year's game after transferring from Liberty.
The Blue Devils opened the second half with a pair of four-point possessions, including 3-pointers from -- guess who -- Curry and Smith. A Curry pump fake and jumper tied the game at 54 with 9:48 to play and Duke its first lead on a Ryan Kelly 3-pointer at 57-55 34 seconds later.
The Blue Devils would never trail again as Smith and Curry scored 41 of the team's 50 second-half points.
Tyler Zeller lead North Carolina with 24 points and 13 rebounds as the Heels badly outplayed Duke's interior. Forward John Henson added 12 points and 10 rebounds despite picking up a third foul early in the second half.
Harrison Barnes, the heavily hyped freshman who picked North Carolina over Duke on the recruiting trail last season, scored just nine points in his first visit to Cameron. Marshall added six assists and committed just one turnover in his first visit to the Blue Devils' chaotic home arena.
Duke overcame an awful night from star Kyle Singler. The senior co-captain hit just 3-of-17 from the floor and was frustrated by Barnes' defense and North Carolina's interior size.
But In the end, it was all Smith, whose breakout dunk put an exclamation point on the game with 15 seconds to play and staked Duke to a six-point lead.
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