CHAPEL HILL – This was, indeed, AJ Griffin’s turn.

The smooth Duke freshman poured in a season-high 27 points in Duke’s 87-67 throttling of North Carolina in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last trip to the Smith Center.

Duke (19-3, 9-2 ACC) held a double-digit lead for all but 3 minutes, 23 seconds of this game – jumping out to a 13-2 lead before the first media break and seemingly never looking back.

The margin reached 23 in the first half and 28 in the second half. UNC never got within 15 points of the score in the second half.

Griffin scored the first 10 points of the second half to turn the last 17 minutes into Duke simply outpacing UNC (16-7, 8-4).

You couldn’t have drawn up a better start for Duke, which led 19-5 after 5½ minutes and 31-8 after 10. To that point the Blue Devils were shooting 13-for-17, with Griffin pumping in nine points and Wendell Moore Jr. adding seven.

It helped that Duke picked up two fouls on Armando Bacot in the first three minutes.

The last 10 minutes of the first half, though, did not go as smoothly.

Duke was 3-for-12 from the field in the rest of the first half, while Brady Manek got going offensively for UNC and had 15 points. Bacot got back into the game and Duke never drew his third foul.

That meant the halftime margin was only 11, at 39-28.