Carolina Blue is the Better Blue

 Change in Momentum

The North Carolina Tarheels took advantage and celebrated the program's first Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title in seven years on the homecourt of their brutal rival, the Duke Blue Devils. After the prestigious win, the Tarheels gathered midcourt near the "Cameron Crazies" section and waved goodbye in a taunting fashion. They were only just answered by several people throwing water bottles and empty bottles at them in anger. The Tarheels figured that this didn't matter as after their 84-79 win, they secured the top seed in the ACC tournament and a season sweep of their rivals. The 9th ranked Blue Devils took the loss in fashion, both within seconds of each game. 

"I definitely think it was uncalled for, but I mean, it's a rivalry game so I kind of expected it. We're still going to enjoy it at the end of the day," Star player RJ Davis said with a smile.

Catching Fire

UNC player Cormac Ryan scored a career high of 31 points, as he shot 8 for 12 from the field and 6 of 8 on three pointers. These stats helped the Tarheels finish the job as Duke continued to push at them with points. Ryan made sure to let the Blue Devil fans hear it with his celebrations. Too add on, he closed out the game with two clinching free throws with 4.7 seconds left. 

"We knew what it meant. We knew what was at stake. And to walk out of this building is always nice," Ryan added.

Another player on the Tarheels, Harrison Ingram, added 14 points and 10 rebounds. He also shot an amazing 50% for the game. With a dominant start, UNC ran out on a 15 point lead, while staying in control all night. 

The big man for the Tarheels, Armando Bacot, had 9 points and 8 rebounds for the team. Assistant coach Jeff Lebo during a halftime interview pointed out that Bacot's stats were key to the lead of 40-31 they had built in the first half.

"He told us there was going to be a point in the game when they came back, but we just had to stay poised and no do too much out of the regular," Bacot added. 

To that point, Duke got within a single point from Jeremy Roach's 3-pointer at the 16:59 mark in the game. Although, the Blue Devils were never able to overcome the deficit and never led, leading to their second year head coach John Scheyer apologizing to the front row of the Duke fans. 

"I'm sorry," He told them. "We are going to keep going, we're going to get this right." 

"We didn't play our best basketball overall. We're still one of the best teams in the country. Our season is not defined by UNC." Filipowski added.

Kyle Filipowski led the Blue Devils by putting up 23 points, while retired Hall-of-Fame coach Coach K made an appearance on the sideline. 

 

The Trip

There was also a bit of rivalry tension aside from the drink-throwing Duke Crazies. Filipowski and Ingram ended up on the floor after Duke's big man contested Ingram's shot at the 6-minute mark of the first half. When Ingram got up to run back on defense, Filipowski was shown kicking up his right leg and tripped Ingram back down the the hardwood court near midcourt. UNC's head coach Hubert Davis immediately started heckling officiators to look at the replay, but there was no whistle blown, so the battle continued. After the game, Filipowski denied that it was intentional, though Ingram, felt that it was purposeful. The controversy of the trip has been all over social media, of course with Duke fans backing Filipowski, while UNC fans angered at the unsportsmanlike action. 

The Road Ahead

UNC looks to have a better spot in the tournament this March, as Duke won't be far behind. Both of these teams stand as some of the best basketball teams in college basketball, as they are certainly ready to put on a show in March Madness. Although, they will have to fight through tough teams such as Auburn, Tennessee, Kansas, Houston, and Kentucky. This year's tournament is stacked with competition, and every college basketball fan is excited to see who will take the thrown to this year's National Championship game.