Duke beats UNC in dramatic fashion, capping another classic

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — They say throw the records out when Duke and North Carolina face off. That sentiment held true Saturday evening in Chapel Hill, when the teams turned in yet another classic battle that will be remembered for years to come.

Duke fans will look back on the game with a smile, as the Blue Devils left with the 98-96 overtime win. And while the entire Duke team came together in the final moments to shock everyone in the Dean Smith Center, it was Tre Jones that provided the Blue Devils with one the more memorable performances of the season.

He’s watched other Duke players do it in the past. He saw his own brother, Tyus, put on one of Duke’s all-time clutch performances on the way to a title.

It was the type of moment Tre has dreamed of throughout his young basketball career.

“That stuff does really motivate me,” Jones said. “My brother being in this position a few times. Watching Austin Rivers. Watching everybody that’s been in these moments. That stuff motivates me because being in the moment myself, I want to be like those guys. So just putting numerous hours in in the gym picturing myself in this moment.”

For most of the night, it did not appear that the moment Jones speaks of would be in the cards. North Carolina shocked everyone with one of its best shooting performances of the season, and controlled the scoreboard for most of the game.

In fact, Duke led for only 1:47 of the entire game. The Blue Devils didn’t take their first lead until the 4:46 mark of overtime.

And that advantage came thanks to the efforts of Jones.

Jones scored Duke’s final nine points in the last 48 seconds of regulation, helping Duke erase a 12-point deficit over the final 3:55. He scored an additional nine points in the overtime period to finish the game with 28 points.

Over a 5:48 stretch, Jones scored 18 points.

“Tre was magnificent,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It’s his best game, because he not only scored and hit the big buckets, his will and his passion permeated throughout our whole team. It made us want it and gave us a chance to hang in there.”

One of the most spectacular moments of the game for Duke came with just four seconds remaining in regulation and the Blue Devils trailing 84-81. It looked to be all but over.

But Jones had other plans. As he stepped to the free throw line, he knew he had to knockdown the first attempt to give his team a chance. He did exactly that and then calmly stepped back to the line and put the second free throw off the front of the rim.

The ball hit the rim in the perfect spot in storybook fashion.

The ricocheted back to Jones, who put the ball not the floor and made one of the biggest shots of his career as the buzzer sounded. The shot put Duke into overtime.

“It was beautiful, I mean it was beautiful,” Cassius Stanley said. “I know he actually practices that.”

Jack White was speechless.

“I don’t even know what to say,” White said. “He’s practiced that a million times before. Just incredible. He’s such a smart player and that play is just a reflection of who he is. He makes so many plays. He’s smart and he’ll do whatever he has to do to help us win. He kept doing it again and again.”

A lot of things had to play out in order for Duke to pull off the unlikely late game heroics. Vernon Carey, who almost single-handedly kept the Blue Devils in the game during the first half when he scored 18 points, fouled out of the contest with 4:16 remaining and Duke trailing 77-64.

Stanley followed with his fifth foul at the 2:32 mark of overtime. He had 22 points when he left the game. Like Jones, he did most of his damage in the second half and overtime after scoring just seven points in the first half.

In Duke’s favor, however, was North Carolina’s struggles from the free throw line and Cole Anthony’s foul trouble.

North Carolina, who made just 55.3-percent (21-of-38) from the free throw line, was 5-of-12 over the last 3:55 of regulation and 4-of-6 in overtime.

The missed shots opened the door for Duke. Then Anthony’s foul trouble was another issue for the Tar Heels.

“Cole had four, and we tried to attack him a little bit,” Krzyzewski said. “He didn’t want to foul out and Tre made some big time buckets. It’s not like he was just making layups. A really outstanding guard makes layups. He practices that all the time, and thank goodness, because he did it.”

Jones was truly outstanding, as he and his teammates willed their way back from as many as 13 points down in the second half.

While Jones was certainly the spark that brought Duke back, freshman Wendell Moore was the Blue Devil who actually pulled off the buzzer-beating layup in overtime to give Duke the victory.

Moore appeared to be lost at times in the first half. In fact, he went into halftime with just four points and two rebounds in 13:21 of action. He finished with 17 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

He scored five points in overtime, including four in the final 12 seconds. After Jones failed to complete an and-1, Duke managed to retain possession with 15 seconds remaining. Three seconds later, Moore cut UNC’s lead to just one point at 96-95.

Then came his biggest shot of the game, an offensive rebound off a Jones miss and then the layup at the buzzer to win the game for Duke.

After that, it was pandemonium.

“I’m speechless right now,” White said. “That was wild. The whole game, just wild.”