The Duke basketball team left Chapel Hill with an unforgettable victory after the Blue Devils hit a buzzer beater at the end of regulation and at the end of overtime to defeat North Carolina.
An instant classic for one fan base and a heartbreaking loss for the other.
Luckily for the Blue Devils and its fans they were right side of yet another buzzer beater involving Duke and North Carolina.
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Tre Jones sent the game into overtime after an intentional missed free throw and he was able to corral his rebound and drill a midrange jumper as the clock expired.
Jones continued his roll right into overtime but after he gave Duke a five point lead, North Carolina responded to lead by five points with under 20 seconds to go.
The sophomore from Apple Valley, Minnesota continued to will Duke back in the game, but he needed some help from the Charlotte native Wendell Moore.
Tre Jones found Moore cutting to the basket to cut the North Carolina lead down to one and then the freshman was able to force a Tar Heel inbound pass to go out of bounds off Andrew Platek for Duke to regain possession.
Jones then inbound to Moore who gave it right back to the point guard as Tre Jones got to the line for two shots but after making the first and missing the second, Moore tipped the rebound back out to the perimeter, Jones threw up an airball but no one boxed out Moore as he crashed the glass and threw up the miss at the rim and got it to go as Duke prevailed, 98-96 in overtime.
Duke shot 34-of-80 (42.5 percent) from the field and 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) from 3-point range while needing all of its 26-of-34 (76.5 percent) from the free throw line.
The Blue Devils were out rebounded 51-42 by North Carolina on Saturday night but the Duke defense was able to force 18 turnovers, 12 coming via steals, in the 45 minute slugfest.
It was an incredible game, one that will be talked about for decades and these teams still can meet at least one more time this season in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Tre Jones
Um, yeah, Tre Jones was alright on Saturday night, wouldn’t you agree?
All the sophomore point guard did was outscore North Carolina in the final four minutes of regulation, hit the game-tying shot at the buzzer to force overtime, and then give Duke a five point lead in overtime.
Then he just brought Duke back in the game in overtime and tied the game at the free throw line before throwing up an air ball which landed in the hands of Wendell Moore who flipped the ball up at the rim and won the game for the Blue Devils.
Combine all that and Tre Jones finished with 28 points, five rebounds, six assists, and three steals on 11-of-25 shooting from the field, missing all four of his 3-point attempts, but going 6-of-9 from the free throw line.
The narrative hasn’t changed since last April when Tre Jones announced he was coming back to Duke, he is going to take this team as far as they want to go and that was once again on display Saturday night.
Wendell Moore
Again, I think Wendell Moore did pretty good on Saturday night, what about you?
Getting a tap out rebound which is then followed by an offensive rebound on a missed shot and a layup at the buzzer to beat North Carolina?
That will get you on the ‘Stock Up’ list every single time.
Oh, it was also the first time in his Duke career in which Wendell Moore recorded a double-double, so yes, I’d say it was a pretty good night for the freshman from Charlotte.
All in all, Moore walked out of the Dean Dome with 17 points, ten rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block on 5-of-8 shooting and 7-of-10 from the free throw line.
A once role player will have his name remembered for the next 100 years in the long history of Duke and North Carolina.
Vernon Carey Jr.
Vernon Carey Jr. kept Duke in the ball game in the first half.
The freshman big man had 18 points at the break as Duke trailed by nine, although North Carolina did a great job adjusting on Carey Jr. in the second half, holding the Florida native scoreless and fouling him out with over five minutes to play in the game.
In just 28 minutes, Carey Jr. went for 18 points and six rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting and 6-of-7 from the free throw line.
Dealing with foul trouble has become a trend for Vernon Carey Jr., who has picked up at least four fouls in five of his last seven games.
As a dominant force on the court, Duke needs to find a way to protect its All-ACC center from getting into more foul trouble so the Blue Devils can have its best five player on the floor.
Jon Scheyer
Jon Scheyer was back on the bench for the first time since January 28 when the Blue Devils beat Pittsburgh.
The Duke Associate Head Coach had to undergo an emergency appendectomy while the Blue Devils were in Syracuse and he did not travel back up north with the team to Boston College as he continued to recover from his procedure.
However, the former Blue Devil finds himself on the ‘Stock Up’ list not for anything he did on Saturday night, but something that has been building for two years now.
Tre Jones told Holly Rowe that he and Scheyer had been working on the intentional missed free throw in practice in case it ever needed to be used during a game and that’s how Jones knew where the ball would go after it rifled it off the rim.
Jon Scheyer is going to be a D-I head coach one of these days and Jones’ postgame interview only proved the point even more and Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke program is lucky to have him for however longer he will remain in Durham.
BONUS: Debbie Jones
Outside of Mike and Mickie Krzyzewski, Debbie Jones might be the most important adult associated with the Duke basketball program in the last decade.
The mother of Tre and Tyus Jones has been a fixture in Durham for the last handful of seasons and Saturday night was no different as she sat right behind the Duke bench, watching her son bring Duke back from the grasp of defeat.
Debbie Jones has no more children that are coming up the ranks, so I guess Duke fans will just have to wait for the eventual offspring of Tre and Tyus to be the leaders of the Blue Devil program in the next 30 years.
Starting Games
This has become a troubling trend for Duke over the past handful of games.
The Blue Devils have gotten behind early and sometimes the hole was too deep to dig themselves out of, specifically in the losses to Clemson and Louisville.
Duke has trailed by at least seven points in the first half in each of its last three games but the Blue Devils had enough fight to erase those deficits and win all three of those games.
As the season rolls on, it will continually become more difficult for Duke to erase these large deficits and coming out sharper, stronger, and faster should be a major talking point as March draws closer.
Matthew Hurt
Matthew Hurt is a major X-Factor for this Duke team.
He struggled once again to adjust to the speed of the game on Saturday, and that’s typical for a freshman playing in his first ever Duke-Carolina game, but Duke’s overall success is dependent on how Hurt plays.
While the freshman from Minnesota isn’t fleet of foot on the defensive end, his offensive game needs to be more consistent as his shooting ability would extend the defense to create more room for Vernon Carey Jr. and more driving lanes for the guards.
In his last two games, Matthew Hurt has just played 17 minutes and scored only two points but he will have another chance to make a major impact on Monday night against Florida State.