North Carolina didn't waste the opportunity to celebrate the program's first outright ACC regular-season title in seven years on the home court of fierce rival Duke.
The seventh-ranked Tar Heels gathered at midcourt near the “Cameron Crazies” and waved goodbye in a mocking farewell, only to be responded to by several people throwing water and bottles of beer at them. empty plastic bags with frustration.
Never mind, the Tar Heels thought. Not after Saturday night's 84-79 victory that clinched the top spot in the ACC tournament and a season sweep of the ninth-ranked Blue Devils, which saw North Carolina trail by just 16 seconds among the two games.
“I definitely think it wasn't necessary, but I mean, it's a rivalry game, so I expected it,” North Carolina guard RJ Davis said with a smile. “We're still going to enjoy it at the end of the day.”
Cormac Ryan scored a career-high 31 points, going 8 of 12 from the field and 6 of 8 on 3-pointers to help the Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3 ACC) fend off one push after another. Duke…and Ryan made sure fans heard it with some enthusiastic reactions.
He closed the game with two decisive free throws with 4.7 seconds left.
“We knew what it meant. We knew what was at stake,” Ryan said. “And getting out of this building is always nice.”
Harrison Ingram added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels, who shot 50% in the game. North Carolina built a 15-point lead with a dominant start and then remained in control all night.
North Carolina big man Armando Bacot, who had nine points and eight rebounds, said the key was following assistant coach Jeff Lebo's instructions during a halftime message with the Tar Heels up 40-31.
“He told us there would be a point in the game when they came back, but we had to stay prepared and not do too much out of the ordinary,” Bacot said.
To that point, Duke (24-7, 15-5) pulled within a single point on a 3-pointer by Jeremy Roach at the 16:59 mark. But the Blue Devils never completely erased the deficit and never took a lead, prompting second-year coach Jon Scheyer to apologize to the Crazies' front row afterward.
“I'm sorry,” he told them. “We're going to move forward. We're going to do this right.”
Kyle Filipowski scored 23 points to lead the Blue Devils, while retired Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski made a rare appearance on the court for the game.
“We didn't play our best basketball overall,” Filipowski said, adding, “We're still one of the best teams in the country. Our season is not defined by UNC.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
