UNC stuns Duke in final second

Duke lost its first matchup of the season against North Carolina when Seth Trimble made a 3-pointer in the final second.

UNC beat the Blue Devils 71-68, dealing Duke its second loss of the season and first since before Christmas.

The Blue Devils (21-2, 10-1 ACC) led for nearly the entire game. The game was tied at 2-2 and 68-68, never in between, and UNC’s only lead was on Trimble’s 3-pointer with four-tenths of a second remaining.

Duke led by as much as 13 in the first half and 15 early in the second half. In a raucous environment, the Blue Devils showed early that they weren’t phased. 

The Blue Devils stuck to an early game plan, attacked the rim and got two feet in the paint. Forcing Hubert Davis to use an early timeout, the Blue Devils then continued make six straight shots. 

Dame Sarr had one of his best halves of the season with 10 points and a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor. He also added five rebounds to his stat sheet. 

Two of the Blue Devils big men in Cameron Boozer and Patrick Ngongba II dealt with some foul trouble in the first half as it was tough to stop Caleb Wilson, who had 18 points in the first half. Boozer stayed calm and collected as he still had 9 points and 4 rebounds. 

An up-tempo start to the second half, Ngongba picked up his 4th foul of the game at the 15:37 mark forcing Maliq Brown to get the majority of the second half run at the five-spot. 

The Heels, cut into the Blue Devils by getting big man, Henri Veesaar on the low-block attempting to get Boozer back on the bench due to foul trouble. 

Ngongba fouled out with 6:18 to  play, and immediately after Derek Dixon, the Heels sharpshooter cut the lead to four with a three-pointer. Not a great stretch for the Blue Devils. 

The Heels forced the ball inside on just about every possession late in the second-half. Forcing Brown to pick up his fourth foul, Veesaar went to work in the post. 

Coming out of the last media timeout up four points, the Blue Devils went back up six thanks to Caleb Foster. That didn’t last long as Dixon and Veesaar hit back-to-back threes to tie the game with 1:40 to play. 

Boozer got the matchup he wanted with Veesaar at the top of key and Boozer just couldn’t convert. 

The Heels rebounded to a timeout with :10 seconds left and Trimble played hero in Chapel Hill. A corner-3 as the Tar Heels took their first lead of the night. 

An all-time classic matchup between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils ended in a court-storm and chaos.