After North Carolina jumped out to an early 20-10 lead, the first half couldn't have gone much better for Duke Wednesday night. Seemingly everyone was on fire from three, with Greg Paulus leading the charge, hitting two shots from well behind the arc. Paulus also hit a tough step-back jumper in a very impressive first half.Just as importantly, the Tar Heels weren't scoring nearly as easily as they've grown accustomed to. Tyler Hansbrough had just four points, and wasn't a factor after picking up his second foul at the 8:25 mark. Wayne Ellington managed to stay on the floor, but was uncharacteristically cold from the field. Add it all up and the Blue Devils had a somewhat surprising 52-44 lead at the break.
But things turned around for UNC pretty quickly in the second half. The most notable change was the emergence of Ty Lawson, who had just four points in the first 20 minutes. The Blue Devils simply had no answer for North Carolina's point guard, who had a ridiculous 21 points after the break.
Lawson was getting to the rim at will, and converting just about everything once he got in the paint. That, combined with 15 points from Hansbrough, and an impressive team performance from the line (27-of-31), allowed the Tar Heels to rack up an absurd 57 points in the second half.
On the other end, Duke's threes stopped falling -- they made only two in the second half, after draining six in the first -- which gave them very little chance of keeping up with UNC. Gerald Henderson, who had an excellent first half, was settling for unnecessary threes, rather than attempting to get to the basket.
The 101-87 win puts Carolina firmly in the driver's seat in the ACC. They're now 8-2 in the league, a full game ahead of Duke, with another matchup with the Blue Devils still to come in Chapel Hill. Barring an unforeseen string of losses, UNC is in great shape to end up with a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs.
Duke has now lost three of five, looking very underwhelming in its last three contests. They'll have to try and get back on track Sunday, when they visit a Boston College team that's lost two in a row itself.
