WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Carolina beats Duke, wins ACC regular-season title

By Sam Rosenthal

Mar 9, 2009

Chapel Hill, N.C. — More than 21,000 fans filled the Dean E. Smith Center Sunday and watched No. 2 North Carolina beat No. 7 Duke, 79-71, to sweep the season series and capture the ACC regular-season championship.

The vast majority of them stayed long after the game to witness the Senior Night speeches by the seven graduating Tar Heels. In past years, the speeches caused relatively few fans to stick around, but this year’s Senior Night differed.

This time, Tyler Hansbrough had played his final home game in the Smith Center. Though the epic rivalry game had all of the hype, all of the storylines and all of the emotions it always does, Hansbrough’s presence dominated the evening.

Both Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler scored more points than Hansbrough (24 and 23, respectively, compared with Hansbrough’s 17). And when Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski cited the three key plays Carolina made to win, none involved Hansbrough.

But in an emotional and historical sense, the evening belonged to No. 50 – and the teammates who feed off his energy.

After receiving pregame ovations from the fans, Hansbrough first affected the game in an unusual way: As a sharpshooter. He hit a three-pointer from the top of the key, which gave UNC an early 9-5 lead, then ran back on defense nodding his head, pumped up as always. Then, with the score 20-17, Hansbrough hit another three from roughly the same spot, establishing a new career high for threes in a game by him – two. In the first half, Hansbrough led UNC in scoring with 10 points, six of them from behind the arc.

Now, the actual game centered on Hansbrough less than the afternoon did. UNC coach Roy Williams said it amounted to Duke having three players score in double figures – Scheyer, Singler, and Gerald Henderson – while UNC had five players with 10 points or more.

Hansbrough led the way with 17, followed by Wayne Ellington with 16 on seven-of-10 shooting (UNC improved to 43-0 all-time when Ellington makes better than 50 percent of his field goal attempts). Deon Thompson scored 14 points on six-of-10 shooting, Danny Green scored 12 that all seemed pivotal, and Ty Lawson scored 13 at less than 100 percent.

Lawson injured his left, big toe in practice Friday, and Williams said he was “extremely concerned about Ty. I did not know until I came over (to the Smith Center) today if he would be ready to play.”

He played well, but not in the I’m-taking-you-to-school way he did during the second half of Carolina’s 101-87 victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, when he scored 25 points. Still, Lawson’s efforts – not the 13 points on two-of-seven shooting, but the nine-of-10 free throws, eight rebounds from the point guard position, nine assists and four turnovers – made a huge difference in the game. “If we had played the game yesterday,” Williams said, “(Lawson) would not have played at all.”

For Duke, the first half amounted to a ride on Singler and Scheyer’s shoulders, as Singler hit five of his first eight shots, and three of five from three-point territory (totaling 15 first-half-points), and Scheyer hit all four of his (part of 11 tallies in the first 20 minutes).

Both teams executed well the majority of the game, and neither made the type of huge run that characterized their first contest this year. But UNC dictated play throughout, leading most of the way and never trailing by more than three points.

Carolina held Duke to 32 percent shooting in the second half, and 44 percent for the game, while shooting 53 percent from the field and 50 percent for the game itself.

And the more important stat: UNC forced 11 Blue Devil turnovers. Duke is 8-0 in ACC play when it commits 10 or fewer turnovers, and now 3-5 when it commits 11 or more.

But for Krzyzewski, the game came down to the final minutes, when UNC held a slight edge and made enough key shots to keep Duke at bay. In particular, they were a pair of late, old-fashioned three-point plays by Thompson and Lawson, and a Green three-pointer that occurred directly after Scheyer hit a falling-down three of his own that had cut UNC’s lead to two.

“The key thing is those three plays, and their kids made them, and that’s why they won,” Krzyzewski said.

“I thought both teams played really well. I know our team played well. We had an opportunity to win the game. … But you get it down where there is some pressure and you need a stop, and we weren’t able to get the stop.”

Carolina, as a team, won the game by sharing the ball, forcing turnovers, and rebounding. Reserves Bobby Frasor and Ed Davis made major contributions in minor minutes – Frasor hit a crowd-uplifting three and also forced a jump ball that gave UNC possession in the final minute and sealed the victory.

Frasor and Green excelled on their Senior Nights. The fans cheered the other seniors – walk-ons Patrick Moody, Jack Wooten and J.B. Tanner, along with reserve Mike Copeland – and offered resounding praise for Frasor and Green. They stayed, 17,000 or 18,000 strong, for the cutting-down of the nets and all of the senior speeches, and the players rewarded them with comedy and poignancy.

One indelible moment: After prodding from the fans, teammates Thompson and Copeland, and the loudspeaker (which began blaring “Jump Around”), Green performed his trademark dance in the Smith Center one last time.

But the "one last time" that mattered most belonged to Hansbrough, who actually fouled out of his final home game with 13.8 seconds left … and received a roaring cheer. Hansbrough said he was upset about fouling out, but joked that “Coach was going to take me out anyway (for an ovation), so I just took myself out.”

Hansbrough said he concentrated on winning, first and foremost.

“(The Senior Night game against Duke) is a hard game to play,” he said. “You’re thinking about your after-game speech and you’re thinking about, ‘Oh man, this is my last game in the Dean Dome.’ You start to think about your college career coming to an end. And all that, and you’re still trying to focus on this game.”

After the game, Hansbrough stood first as Williams offered him scissors to snip the netting, then No. 50 waited near the end of the Tar Heel bench while his classmates gave their speeches. He locked his fingers together, then rested his head in his hand, clearly pensive about his speech.

“We love you Tyler!” one fan screamed out before Hansbrough’s speech, and the student section added a cheer. When he finally took the mic, far more emotion poured out of him than words. He thanked his brothers, his father, his mother, his coaches, and the fans, all the while choking back tears and pausing at length and frequently.

He called his time at Carolina “the best four years of my life,” and concluded: “I want to thank everybody here. It’s been a great experience. Thank you.”

Carolina fans gave Hansbrough an appreciative cheer in their last look at him in No. 50 in Chapel Hill.

From now on, they'll see that number in the rafters. And Hansbrough has thought about what it will be like to have his jersey hanging with Jordan, Ford and Worthy.

“Yeah, I have, actually," he said. "Something I think about when I look up at those jerseys every day is, ‘I’m going to be up there, too.’ And it’s great company to be up there. I know all those great players, and for me to be up there is an honor.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling, to be honest with you.”