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Tar Heels Rebound, Top Duke 79-73

Feb 8, 2007

Durham, N.C. — For the second straight year, North Carolina's youngsters walked into one of college basketball's most intimidating arenas and came out with a confidence-building win.

Freshman Brandan Wright scored 19 points while Tyler Hansbrough added 16 to lead the fifth-ranked Tar Heels past No. 16 Duke 79-73, earning their second straight win in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Rookie Ty Lawson added 15 points for the Tar Heels (21-3, 7-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who trailed by 10 points early in the second half before finally going ahead to stay in the final minutes.

Freshman Jon Scheyer had a career-high 26 points for the Blue Devils (18-6, 5-5), who have lost three straight games for the first time since 1999 - when they lost to Connecticut in the NCAA championship and opened the 1999-2000 season with two straight losses.

Last year, Hansbrough led a youth-laden group into Cameron to close the regular season and spoil All-American J.J. Redick's final home game in an 83-76 win. And once again, the Tar Heels rallied from a double-digit deficit and came up with the game's big baskets in the final minutes.

It was a strong way to bounce back after an surprising weekend loss to North Carolina State - an 83-79 setback that had an irked coach Roy Williams calling his team "fat and happy" afterward.

He won't be saying that now.

After trailing by as many as 10 points early in the second half, the Tar Heels hung around by constantly subbing in an endless stream of fresh bodies while pressuring Duke's ballhandlers the entire way. By the time the game was entering its final minutes, North Carolina looked fresher and found ways to knock down the critical shots.

North Carolina took its first lead at 62-60 when Gerald Henderson was whistled for a goaltending on Reyshawn Terry's fast-break layup with 5:15 left, then pushed the lead to 64-60 when Wright knocked in a tough shot over Josh McRoberts on the next possession.

Duke managed to close the gap to 64-63 shot in the lane from Henderson, then looked poised to go ahead when DeMarcus Nelson got to the foul line after a turnover. But Nelson missed both shots - part of a 3-for-10 effort on free throws in the second half - and Hansbrough knocked down a straightaway jumper on the next play to make it 66-63 with 3:15 left.

That started a six-point run from the Tar Heels, who took their largest lead at 70-63 on Lawson's driving basket while drawing the foul for a three-point play with 1:46 left. Lawson followed with a driving basket against three defenders on the next possession, and the Tar Heels went 7-for-8 at the line to seal it.

At the other end, the Blue Devils were left with their first in-season three-game losing skid since the 1995-96 season.

The Blue Devils were coming off a 68-66 overtime loss at Virginia and a 68-67 home loss to Florida State, and in both games they failed to score on the final play. Coach Mike Krzyzewski responded by shaking up his starting lineup, pulling tri-captains McRoberts and Nelson - who had started every game this season - in favor of freshmen Henderson and Brian Zoubek. But it was the play of another rookie, Scheyer, who got the Blue Devils off and running.

Scheyer finished with 14 first-half points, including a stickback of a Henderson miss that gave Duke its largest lead at 35-25 at the 4-minute mark.

But the Tar Heels eventually erased the deficit, getting a 3-pointer from Wes Miller followed by a short jumper from Hansbrough to tie it at 52 with 9:40 left.

Check out our audio slideshow from the game.