The Rivalry Rages On

Recently, Duke has been dominating UNC in college basketball. Not tonight! The Tar Heels beat the Blue Devils 74-66 for their 8th straight win. Shooting guard Leslie McDonald led the way with 21 points for UNC and point guard Marcus Paige exploded in the second half with 13 points and four assists, guiding the Tar Heels to the sweet victory at home. This year, UNC is 5-1 against ranked teams, which is a pretty good stat for an unranked team. As a Tar Heel fan myself, I was very proud of the win tonight. UNC has done well lately after a rough start to the season. Their free throw percentage was absolutely horrible in the first half of the game (as it has been all season), but they picked it back up in the second half and played with a lot more intensity on defense. Duke’s phenomenal freshman Jabari Parker still managed to get a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but UNC was able to shut down the Blue Devils’ three-point shooting in the win. Duke only made five three-pointers tonight, when they usually average somewhere around ten made per game. The Tar Heels were also grabbing rebounds all game long. They are ranked 8th in the nation in rebounds per game and that stat was true tonight. Those offensive rebounds gave UNC second chances that was probably the main key to the win. This win will definitely be savored for a while, but UNC now has to focus on Wake Forest on Saturday.

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