Duke beats UNC in first matchup under Jon Scheyer

DURHAM – The question was simple enough, and yet it made Duke freshman Kyle Filipowski rock back in his chair, here in the middle of Duke’s locker room.

Have you ever seen someone dominate a game while only scoring four points?

Filipowski pursed his lips in an exhale and started to answer.

“Even though Dereck only had four points, man-,” Filipowski said, before taking stock of his classmate who’d just returned to his seat. Filipowski extended a fist to be bumped, the Blue Devils’ 7-footers taking a moment to themselves amid something like 20 media members.

“Yo, Dereck, great job bro.”

“I gotchu boy! Keep killing, boy!” came the booming answer.

These are Duke’s big men on campus, riding even higher after a 63-57 win over North Carolina on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Filipowski has been the central figure after a lot of Duke’s (17-6, 8-4 ACC) games this season, and he had 14 points.

It was the performance of Dereck Lively II, though, that stole the show — all two buckets and four points, which included the go-ahead two-handed dunk on a put-back. The 7-1, 230-pounder had a season-high 14 rebounds and had eight blocks — the most blocks of any Duke player in a game against UNC.

“Who cares about those four points?” Filipowski said, returning to his thought. “He did an incredible job on (Armando) Bacot, oh man, I’m so glad I’m on the same team as him. Buckets didn’t come for him, but he effected the game so many more ways. He got my butt a few times, too.”

The latest version of this rivalry goes down as another classic, with four lead changes and four ties in the last 12 minutes.

Duke took a 59-57 lead with 1:35 left on a Lively flush of a Jeremy Roach miss off the backboard.

It was, indeed, fitting for Lively to have the go-ahead points, even though they were only his third and fourth points of the game.

“I’ve been comfortable in these past few games, but I’m just trying to stay hungry,” Lively said. “Trying to make sure people don’t try to punk me.”

The leading candidate to do that had a strong first half and was barely heard from in the second half.

Bacot had 14 points to lead UNC (15-8, 7-5), along with 10 rebounds. Two of those points and three of the rebounds came in the second half.

Coach Jon Scheyer has remained steadfast in his belief of Lively through criticism of his freshman center, and it’s paying off. Lively played a season-high 33 minutes and only committed two fouls (part of a larger story, with only 25 fouls called total).

“Dereck Lively just changed the game,” Scheyer said. “It’s a credit to what makes Dereck so special. For us, I’ve seen him change high school games or AAU games doing the same thing. Usually bigs are so hungry to score, that’s not necessarily the best play or most-efficient play.

“For him, he’s all about the team. He’s all about winning.”

This is where the bridge is being built between expectations of Lively based on recruiting rank versus where he actually excels.

“That’s just something I’ve just always been able to do,” Lively said. “I haven’t been able to be as offensive-driven as every other player here, but I’ve got my own way to get on this team. I get my rebounds, I get my blocks, I do the dirty work.”

After last season’s three matchups between these teams averaged a total of 162.3 points, the 120 scored Saturday are the lowest in this series since Duke’s 64-54 win at UNC in 2010.

Pete Nance tied the game at 57-57 with 3:56 left, and Duke scored the final six points. Lively provided the boost to the lead, and then Roach scored Duke’s last four points. He had 20 points, his second straight 20-point game.

“This is a big-time win,” Roach said, smiling from ear to ear. “We were just locked in, two teams competing. … I’m just happy we pulled this one out, we’ve got a lot of young guys. We’ve been through a lot this year.”

Duke’s lead was one at halftime and the beginning of the second half lined up as some of the most-important minutes of this game.

It was Duke’s defense — as you’d figure — that set the tone.

UNC missed 10 of its first 11 shots in the second half. UNC’s 57 points are a season-low, and the Tar Heels are the ninth team this season Duke has held to a season-low in points.

This place was at a boiling point by the opening tip, but it was UNC that struck early.

The Tar Heels led 7-2 early and by as much as seven with 7:39 left in the first half. Part of turning things around for Duke was RJ Davis picking up his second foul and going to bench with about 8½ minutes left, though he returned briefly before halftime.

On the possession after UNC’s lead grew to seven, Filipowski drilled a 3-pointer. Those were the first points of a slow-developing 9-0 run, which was capped by Roach’s three-point play in transition that gave Duke its first lead of the game at 26-24.

TIP-INS: In addition to the regular former players in attendance, current NBA players in the building were Paolo Banchero, Wendell Carter Jr., Mark Williams and Mason Plumlee. … The 57 points for UNC is the fewest the Tar Heels have scored in Cameron since Duke’s 82-50 win in 2010, which was Scheyer’s Senior Night. … Scheyer joins Harold Bradley (1950) and Bill Foster (1974) as the only Duke coaches since the end of World War II to win their first game against UNC.