Tar Heels Upend No. 1 Duke, 83-76
Courtesy of Tarheelblue.com

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina's precocious freshmen earned another victory on the road, in perhaps the toughest setting.

They ruined Senior Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Tyler Hansbrough scored 27 points, fellow rookie Danny Green came up with the key defensive stop and the 13th-ranked Tar Heels held off No. 1 Duke 83-76 Saturday night in the final home game for J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.

Bobby Frasor, yet another first-year player, converted two clutch free throws with 23 seconds remaining, and Hansbrough later made two more. That made it a five-point game, and the Blue Devils (27-3, 14-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) were done when DeMarcus Nelson missed everything on a 3-pointer at the other end.

"When I knocked down those free throws, it hit me that we'd just come in here and beat Duke," Hansbrough said.

"It doesn't get any better than this."

The win was worth one Carlyle Cup point in the overall competition between Carolina and Duke. The Tar Heels currently lead the standings, 10-6.

The Blue Devils completed the regular season with their first loss to North Carolina in Cameron since 2001 and will almost certainly drop from the top spot in The Associated Press poll on Monday after losing two in a row. Florida State upset Duke earlier in the week.

Marcus Ginyard, the fourth freshmen in the rotation for the Tar Heels (21-6, 12-4), added 12 points and Frasor finished with 10. Green stripped Duke's Sean Dockery on a drive in the final minute when the margin was only three points.

"We've got a lot of guys contributing and that makes us a dangerous team," Green said. "I think this proves we're capable of beating anybody."

Redick scored 18 points despite missing 15 of his final 16 shots, and Williams had 18 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks.

The Blue Devils wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament before their recent struggles, and they head there looking for their seventh title in eight years.

"Sometimes it's not bad to hurt," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Sometimes you don't want things until you get hurt. We got hurt today, let's see what we do."

For the first 30 minutes, this one appeared that it would be decided in the final seconds, as so many games are in this Tobacco Road rivalry. It was 59-59 midway through the second half - the eighth tie - when the Tar Heels surprisingly took control.

An 11-0 run did it, with little-used senior Byron Sanders leading the way. He got a pair of nifty assists from reserve point guard Quentin Thomas for his only two baskets of the game, and when Thomas fed David Noel for a jumper, North Carolina led by 10.

It was 70-59 when Terry added a free throw, and the Tar Heels still led by 11 with 2 1/2 minutes remaining. But the game was far from over.

Nelson swished two 3s in a span of about 40 seconds and Lee Melchionni put back a miss from Redick. Suddenly, the Blue Devils were down only 77-74, and when Nelson got a steal on the ensuing possession, they had a chance to tie.
The Cameron Crazies were in a frenzy.

"My ears started ringing when they made that run," Hansbrough said. "It's everything it's hyped up to be."

But Green thwarted Dockery's drive through the lane, which led to the free throws by Frasor and Hansbrough, and North Carolina held on to win for the seventh time in eight ACC road games this season. The four freshmen outscored Duke's four senior starters 55-51.

"We've got a lot of confidence right now in each other, and that's contagious," Ginyard said. "I know it's helped me."