Second Half Surge Pushes Duke Past UNC

On Wednesday night, the Duke Blue Devils (22-2, 9-1) went into the locker room at halftime down 14?... At home? The Tar Heels of North Carolina (17-6, 7-2) came out firing in the first half as they scored 43 points against a pesky Duke defense. The home crowd at Cameron Indoor was far from happy as they were watching their long time rival just run up and down their floor.

Duke did not take long to kick it into gear in the second half as during the first eight minutes they had outscored UNC 16-6 and shrunk the lead to four. Not long after that, UNC pushed their edge back up to ten and a third loss might be looming for the Blue Devils... and the Nolan Smith happened.

Nolan Smith was outstanding in this one and he showed why he is one of the best point guards in the ACC if not the country in the second half. Smith had a career high 34 points, 22 of which came in the second half. Seth Curry was also big in this one for Duke as he had 22 points off the bench. Kyle Singler definitely didn't have his best game as he had only 10 points on a horrific 3 of 17 shooting. He did however hit two clutch free throws at the end of the game which put the game to two possessions only to be capped off by a Nolan Smith Dunk with 17 seconds remaining.

"It wasn't an X-and-O adjustment. ... They were too excited," Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "''Nuts' is the word. 'What are you guys doing?' It's not like, 'You know, you guys aren't playing hard.' They're playing hard. ... When you go like that, you're not coordinated, and it was more to get a coordinated effort on the offensive and defensive ends."

For the Tar Heels, Tyler Zeller lead the team with 24 points and a career high 13 rebounds. This team looked destined to finally knock off Duke, something they haven't done in over two years. It would have been even more impressive to do it on Coach K Court. "To say it's extremely disappointing would be an understatement," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

Atlantic Coast Conference Standings

TEAM	CONF W-L	TOTAL W-L
#5 Duke	9-1	22-2
#21 North Carolina	7-2	17-6
Florida State	6-3	16-7
Clemson	6-4	17-7
Virginia Tech	5-4	15-7
Maryland	5-4	16-8
Boston College	5-5	15-9
Miami (FL)	4-6	15-9
Virginia	3-6	12-11
Georgia Tech	3-6	10-12
North Carolina State	2-7	12-11
Wake Forest	1-8	8-16