DURHAM – Duke needed one more clutch play to extend Saturday night’s latest chapter in its football rivalry with North Carolina.

Grayson Loftis’ pass to Jalon Calhoun sailed through the back of the end zone, though, sealing UNC’s 47-45 win over the Blue Devils at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

“That’s what rivalries are, that’s what rivalry is about,” Duke coach Mike Elko said. “You certainly have to give those guys credit.”

UNC (8-2, 4-2 ACC) scored a touchdown on Drake Maye’s 5-yard rush in the second overtime, and converted the 2-point conversion on Maye’s scrambling throw to John Copenhaver.

Duke (6-4, 3-3) answered with Loftis’ 6-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore, but the failed 2-point attempt was an abrupt end to a thriller — and sent the student section spilling onto the field.

“It’s a rivalry, we all know how big it is,” said running back Jordan Waters, who scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. “To come up short, it’s always disappointing.”

Waters’ touchdowns came 4½ minutes apart and sandwiched an onside kick recovery. The first one brought Duke to within 26-21, and the second — along with a 2-point conversion — gave the Blue Devils a 29-26 lead.

That set the stage for a wild last two minutes, with UNC taking a lead on Bryson Nesbit’s 15-yard touchdown catch, Duke retaking it with Loftis’ 30-yard touchdown to Moore on fourth down, and UNC tying the game at 36-36 with a 43-yard field goal on the last play of regulation.

And, exhale.

There were controversial calls and we’ll get to those in a column.

This marked the fifth straight loss to UNC in the series, so it’ll be another year that the Tar Heels own the Victory Bell. It was wheeled out to midfield in the chaos of the post-game celebration, ringing as Duke’s players left the field.

“You get punched, you get up. You get knocked down, you get up again. There is no choice, there is no message,” defensive tackle DeWayne Carter said. “I think that’s the way we’re trained as a team. That’s our mentality, that’s that grittiness.”

It was that mentality that had Duke fight and claw its way back into this game.

UNC took seven minutes off of the clock in the third quarter with its fourth drive of the game that penetrated Duke’s red zone and ended with a field goal.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Omarion Hampton scored on a 2-yard touchdown to make it 26-14 — part of his 169-yard rushing performance, along with eight catches for 47 yards.

When Duke went three-and-out on its next possession and punted back to a UNC offense it had stopped from scoring on once of six drives (an interception), a comeback felt unlikely.

Duke got the stop it needed, marched 70 yards on seven plays for Waters’ first touchdown, and then scored again to set up all of the late-game and overtime theatrics.

“We knew how explosive they were on offense, we knew that we couldn’t play a 15-, 16-possession type game,” Elko said. “We were trying to do everything we could to just hang in there and just get it to the fourth quarter, and then in the fourth quarter we were going to turn it loose.

“I think that’s what we did. I thought in the fourth quarter, Grayson was phenomenal.”

Loftis had four completions for 48 yards in the first three quarters; he finished the game 16-for-28 for 189 yards and three touchdowns, along with a rushing score.

The first possession on each side of the ball couldn’t have gone much worse for Duke.

UNC went 75 yards in 10 plays to start the game. The key plays were a third-down completion by Maye as he was being brought down by Cam Dillon, going for 6 yards on third-and-4, and a 43-yard pass down the sideline to Tez Walker. Maye capped the opening salvo with a 1-yard touchdown run.

“That’s eight quarters and … two overtimes,” Elko said of facing Maye this year and last year. “He’s really big, he’s really physical, he’s really athletic, he’s really competitive. There’s not a lot of superlatives that don’t fit him.

“As much as he’s on the other side of this rivalry, like, you can’t not have respect for that kid.”

Duke’s first possession lasted less than a minute. Moore dropped a second-down pass and Loftis’ third-down throw was rushed and out of bounds.

UNC added a couple of field goals on its next two possessions, both of which went 67 yards on 11 plays. Duke’s defense held strong with its backs to the end zone, though, which is why the Blue Devils had a lead when things broke their way in the second quarter.

Loftis hit Moore on a slant for a 10-yard touchdown pass with about five minutes left in the second quarter. It capped a nine-play, 70-yard drive that, more or less, proved the Blue Devils’ offense wouldn’t be wholly reliant on their rushing attack — Loftis was 3-for-3 for 38 yards on the drive.

When returner Doc Chapman botched a kickoff and UNC started at its 1-yard line, Maye threw his sixth interception of the season — caught and returned to the 14-yard line by Jaylen Stinson. Credit linebacker Tre Freeman for pressuring Maye into the errant throw.

Duke’s 14-13 lead came after Loftis’ slick keeper on an option, slicing through a gap from 3 yards out. UNC got a field goal in the final minute of the first half, set up by a 48-yard pass from Maye to Walker, to lead 16-14 at halftime.