Former Duke basketball player hits buzzer beater to knock off UNC at new school

Former Duke basketball player and current Stanford Cardinal Jaylen Blakes is still causing North Carolina pain even when playing with his new program.

The senior hit a near-buzzer beating mid range jumper to knock off UNC in Chapel Hill by a score of 72-21. The Cardinal now improve to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in ACC play while bumping the Tar Heels to 12-7 overall and 5-2 in ACC play.

Blakes spent three seasons with the Blue Devils where he saw inconsistent minutes throughout his time in Durham.

After not seeing the court much as a freshman, Blakes became a part of the Blue Devils' rotation in both his sophomore and junior seasons, mainly for his defensive capabilities.

Blakes averaged 13.6 minutes a game throughout his sophomore season and averaged 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds. In his junior season, his minutes dropped to 9.2 per game where he averaged 1.8 points and 0.8 rebounds per game.

Blakes earned his minutes by being one of, if not Duke's best on-ball defender on the perimeter. No one else put out more effort than Blakes and he was never afraid to put his body on the line for a 50/50 ball.

He was named to the ACC All-Academic Team in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons and graduated from Duke in three years, thus hitting the portal as a graduate student with two years of eligibility remaining.

Blakes found a new home at Stanford and and has started all 17 games for the Cardinal this season.

He's averaging 14.5 points, 5.2 assists, and 1.9 steals a game on 44.3% shooting from the field and 33.9% shooting from three point range on 6.4 attempts from three a night.

His new home has allowed him to put his offensive potential on display in a way he wasn't able to do in Durham. Blakes has taken 158 shots this season with Stanford. In his three seasons combined at Duke, he took 166 shots.

Blakes has also scored in double figures in fifteen of Stanford's eighteen games with three of those games scoring 20 or more. In his three seasons at Duke, Blakes eclipsed double figure scoring just four times and never scored 20 or more in a game.

It's a great sight for Duke fans to see Blakes succeeding in his new home and still bringing heartbreak to UNC.