UNC Basketball Moments After – UNC vs. Duke 84-79 Win
UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Strong Arms the Duke Blue Devils in the First Half Then Holds on to Clinch the ACC Regular Season Title
Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
In the 262nd Men’s basketball matchup between the two Blue Blood programs, North Carolina and Duke faced off once again in what is deemed the best rivalry in college sports on Saturday night. However, there was more on the line in this game. The winner of this game wins the ACC regular season championship outright. North Carolina came into this game 8-0 in the previous matchups against Duke with the ACC regular season championship on the line and looked to extend the streak on Saturday night. To start the game, the Tar Heels were locked in and came out blazing hot from the field, hitting their first 5 shots of the game.
North Carolina was the more physical, aggressive, active team early and put extreme pressure on Duke after jumping out to a 21-6 lead. The Heels did an excellent job of creating quality offense every time down the floor with their ability to get downhill and dominate in the paint, which allowed them to open the floor up for wide-open shots on the perimeter. Defensively, UNC harassed Duke on the perimeter and forced them into tough twos and turnovers leading to the Heels getting out in transition. The Tar Heels shot 50% from the field while holding Duke to just 37% from the field, and led by 9 going into halftime.
In the second half, Duke went on an 11-5 run to cut the Carolina lead to 3 points at 45-42 in the first few minutes. Kyle Filipowski scored 8 of those 11 points, forcing the Heels to regroup and lock back in defensively. After the next timeout, the Tar Heels would respond with a run of their own to push their lead back to double figures. Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan were excellent throughout the game with their scoring, defense, and overall toughness and grit brought in this game, setting the tone for the team. Duke had no answers for Cormac Ryan, who had a career-high 31 points, or Harrison Ingram who added 14 points of his own.
Jaelyn Withers and Seth Trimble were huge off the bench with energy, effort, and activity on both ends of the floor with their rebounding, defense, and timely baskets. North Carolina led the game from start to finish and in the two games played this season have proven to be a better team than Duke. Duke hung around in this game after some mistakes from North Carolina and Duke’s ability to draw fouls on Carolina. The final score doesn’t show how much the Tar Heels outplayed the Blue Devils. The Tar Heels outplayed them in the paint and on the perimeter and were in control of the game from the tip with the two best players, Armando Bacot and RJ Davis having subpar games, not even reaching doubles figures in scoring. Duke was resilient down the stretch keeping the game close, but UNC was able to pull out a critical win making them the outright ACC Regular Season Champions for the 2023-2024 season.
UNC Game Stats
| 1 | 2 | T | |
| 7 North Carolina 25-6 | 40 | 44 | 84 |
| 9 Duke 24-7 | 31 | 48 | 79 |
| STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| C. Ryan | 31 | 2 | 1 | 8/12 | 6/8 | 9/10 | 3 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| H. Ingram | 14 | 10 | 2 | 5/12 | 0/2 | 4/5 | 2 | 35 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| A. Bacot | 9 | 8 | 3 | 4/11 | 0/0 | 1/1 | 3 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| R. Davis | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4/12 | 1/3 | 0/0 | 2 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| E. Cadeau | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3/4 | 0/0 | 1/2 | 4 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| S. Trimble | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3/5 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Withers | 6 | 8 | 0 | 3/4 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| J. Washington | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1/2 | 0/1 | 0/0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| P. Wojcik | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Farris | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Okonkwo | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| R. Landry | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Z. High | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Lebo | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 84 | 37 | 11 | 31/62 | 7/15 | 15/18 | 17 | – | 6 | 3 | 12 |
| STARTERS | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| K. Filipowski | 23 | 7 | 2 | 8/18 | 2/6 | 5/8 | 4 | 34 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| J. McCain | 19 | 7 | 2 | 6/12 | 2/5 | 5/5 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| T. Proctor | 14 | 2 | 3 | 6/11 | 2/6 | 0/0 | 0 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Roach | 13 | 0 | 3 | 3/12 | 2/4 | 5/6 | 2 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| M. Mitchell | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1/3 | 0/1 | 1/2 | 3 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| BENCH | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT | FT | PF | MIN | STL | BLK | TO |
| T. Power | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2/2 | 1/1 | 2/3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| S. Stewart | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| R. Young | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0/2 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| J. Blakes | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| S. Hubbard | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| S. Borden | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Reeves | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| J. Schutt | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| C. Foster | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| N. Begovich | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 79 | 27 | 10 | 26/60 | 9/23 | 18/24 | 16 | – | 6 | 6 | 7 |
UNC Bright Spots
Cormac Ryan had 31 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
Harrison Ingram had 14 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
Jaelyn Withers had 6 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 block in just 11 minutes
Needs Work
When Carolina has a lead, they need to do a better job of extending their leads. Too many times they get lazy and unfocused defensively make careless mistakes and take ill-advised shots offensively, which allows opponents to hang around.
Final Observations
North Carolina finishes the regular season 25-6 and is the ACC Regular Season Champion. This is the 33rd regular season championship for the Tar Heels, which is the most in the conference. The Tar Heels also finished the season with 25 wins for the 40th time, which is an NCAA record. Hubert Davis joins Bill Guthridge as the only Tar Heel head coach to win 20 or more games in each of their first three seasons.
After a disappointing season last year where the Tar Heels didn’t even make the NCAA tournament, UNC has bounced back this year in impressive fashion. They finish the season as a top 7 team in the country and will more than likely move up the rankings in the next week. The Tar Heels finished 6-2 against ranked opponents on the season and 8-2 on the road in ACC play, which shows how battle-tested this team truly is. They’ve won games in every type of way this season. Every starter for the Heels, which includes Elliott Cadeau, RJ Davis, Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan, and Armando Bacot, has had at least one game where they’ve stepped up and been the player of the game, leading the Tar Heels to a win. That goes to show how talented they are, and the bench production has improved over the course of the season as well.
The Tar Heels are No. 6 in the country in defensive efficiency (93.5 points allowed per 100 possessions) and No. 26 in offensive efficiency (118.1 points scored per 100 possessions), which goes to show how balanced they are. The success of the team is because of how close this team is, how well-coached they are, and because of the leadership of their core guys RJ Davis and Armando Bacot, who have been through hardships, trials, and challenges throughout their careers, leading the way. Cormac Ryan and Harrison Ingram have been tremendous additions and have changed the overall outlook of this team with their toughness, grit, and tenacity on both ends of the floor. RJ Davis has had an exceptional year for the Tar Heels leading the ACC in scoring and should be the ACC Player of the Year. This team is only scratching the surface of what their potential could be. They still have more to accomplish this year with the ACC tournament and NCAA tournament coming up and are hungry to go after to it. Next up is the ACC tournament on Thursday with the opponent and time TBD.