A fierce rivalry between Duke and North Carolina made of this game quite an exciting matchup as the Blue Devils stunned the North Carolina Tar Heels 85-84 with a brilliant last minute pass from a freshman that is already working his way up to the pros. Duke was coming off an overtime home loss to Miami over the weekend, so they really needed to strap them on and get a win. At the end, it really seems that North Carolina won most of the rounds, but it would be the Duke Blue Devils making the most of the last round and the game Rajabandot.
The North Carolina Tar Heels were ranked No. 5 in the AP Polls and with a season record of 20-4 overall and 7-2 in Conference Play, and playing at home, chances were things were going to end in their favor. Sure enough, before them they had the Duke Blue Devils, their conference rivals that with the same record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Considering that the Blue Devils had a school record 31 consecutive wins at home, Duke would had to go into overdrive to take such a key win on the road. And at the end, it would be up to a freshman player to make the game changing 3-pointer. The Tar Heels took an early advantage and hold the Blue Devils back for the better part of the game. Harrison Barnes was at the helm of the Tar Heels with 25 points while Tyler Zeller finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds.
But Zeller, despite his good numbers, had a terrible second half. He only scored four points in the second half and missed two free throws in the final and decisive minute, including one with 13.9 seconds left that set up Austin Rivers’ winning shot, which by the way, he was also in guarding when he made that last minute shot. North Carolina blew up a 10-point lead with only 2 minutes to go. It certainly looked as if the Blue Devils would have to go home with a loss, but at the end it was Doc Rivers’ the Boston Celtics head coach kid, Austin Rivers who would make all the difference. Rivers scored a season-high 29 points and hit 6 three-pointers, so when the last played came out, the Tar Heels knew very well that he was the chosen player to seal the deal.
Still, the 7-foot plus Zeller gave him way too much space and never raised his hands to use his length to defend the basket. By the time Zeller reacted the ball was already leaving his hands as the buzzer was just to go out. “Obviously this is my favorite win I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Rivers said. “And it’s because we were down the whole game. The whole game, we were down. They just kept it on us — 10-point lead, 10-point lead. And then there was 3 minutes left and probably everybody thought we were going to lose, and we just kept fighting. To get a W, it’s amazing.”
