Momentum. Gone.
Cut off. Vanished. Evaporated into the angry, shout-filled air of the Dean Smith Center.
No. 3 Duke beat North Carolina 69-53 on Saturday — on Senior Night, on the Tar Heels’ home court. And it wasn’t pretty.
Seth Curry had 20 points for the Blue Devils. Mason Plumlee had 23 and 13 rebounds. UNC’s highest scorer was James Michael McAdoo, who had 15.
The Blue Devils dominated the opening stretches of both halves, behind Curry’s lights-out shooting in the first and Plumlee’s domination inside in the second.
“Seth’s performance in the first half, he was just the best player on the court,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And in the second half, we had the best player on the court in Mason.
“In a game like this, (Reggie) Bullock could take over and he’d be the best player on the court, or (P.J.) Hairston. But it just turned out that in those two halves, those two kids were the difference makers.”
The blowout wasn’t easy to see coming. The Tar Heels had played Duke close in their first matchup, and that was on the road at Cameron Indoor Stadium. They had won six straight games with their new-look lineup. They were on the verge of a top-25 ranking, and they were hungry.
But Duke was the team that feasted, while North Carolina played its worst game in weeks.