ATLANTA — UNC coach Matt Doherty had 20-20 vision and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
Twenty Tar Heel turnovers and 20 Duke offensive rebounds added up to a 79-53 romp by the Blue Devils in an anticlimactic finale to a memorable ACC Tournament that produced a number of fantastic games in the early rounds.
“Duke’s a great team,” said Doherty. “You just can’t turn the ball over against them 20 times and you can’t give them 20 offensive rebounds and have any chance.”
The magnitude of Duke’s devastation was comparable to its rout of the Tar Heels in the ACC tournament final in 1999, although that was a day when the Devils played extraordinarily well offensively and won 96-73.
Sunday at the Georgia Dome, the Devils did extraordinary things on defense, ripping apart the Tar Heels’ halfcourt sets and making the game one of those run-and-stun affairs at which they excel and at which the slower Heels struggle.
It was Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 600th coaching win and he called it “gratifying” because the Devils played without injured center Carlos Boozer. Another Duke star, guard Jason Williams, sprained an ankle with 13 minutes left and didn’t return, but by then, Duke led by 24 points and the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
Sophomore Mike Dunleavy was immense, scoring a career-high 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds for the second-seeded Blue Devils (29-4), who notched their 12th tourney crown and earned the right to play Monmouth in Greensboro as the East’s No. 1 seed on Thursday. MVPShane Battier didn’t shoot well, but scored 20, while Williams had 15.
Joseph Forte was the only Tar Heel in double figures with 14 points, as UNC was held to a season-low point total by the swarming, black-clad demons from Durham.
Duke became only the third school to win three straight tournament titles, joining N.C. State (1954-56) and UNC (1967-69).
The crushing loss for the Tar Heels (25-6) knocked them down to a No. 2 seed in the
NCAAs. They’ll try to rebound Friday in New Orleans against Princeton.
But the Heels did not rebound at all on Sunday. Krzyzewski called the board battle the single biggest key to the blowout. Minus Boozer, Duke somehow gave the Heels a glass-kicking. Duke doubled the top-seeded Heels in second-chance points.
“We had a 6-foot-4 center (Reggie Love) in there and he was giving away 80 pounds, seven inches to Brendan Haywood,’’ said Battier. “But Reggie fought.”
Early, Carolina fought, too. Duke led only 19-17 after nearly 11 minutes and while both teams seemed weary and nervous, one more instant classic in the series seemed to be unfolding.
But then the Tar Heels folded.
Two seemingly innocent Battier free throws ignited a Duke run of 19-1 that was every bit as furious as the 23-0 blitz it ran off against Georgia Tech in Cameron this season. Only this wasn’t Cameron. It was a house where three quarters of the 40,083 in attendance were Tar Heel supporters.
Duke did its damage with defense — clawing, scratching, unrelenting, in-your-face defense — that annihilated every white jersey in its path. Nate James clamped down on Forte and no one else could pick up the slack. Tar Heel ballhandler Ronald Curry came apart at the seams and Duke shot layups and dunked for six merry minutes. After that, it was 42-21 and the story of this championship game had pretty much been written.
“We were playing fundamentally sound and then we started to turn it over,” said Doherty. “You have to make Duke play against a set defense and we didn’t. They got a lot of easy ones.”
Duke players contended that the Tar Heels lost their legs in the early stages of that spectacular spurt, and perhaps their heart at the end of it.
“Both teams were tight,” Battier said. “But then our defense got going and we could see Carolina was dragging. After our defense got us a cushion, it loosened up our offense.”
Carolina showed a pulse late in the first half, getting to within 45-30 with 1:47 to go on five quick points by Brian Morrison. But just as it appeared the Heels might creep back into it, Williams made a 3-pointer and Dunleavy hit a follow shot. Duke’s halftime lead was a secure 50-30.
The second half started with buckets by Dunleavy and Battier for a 24-point lead, and it was clear that whatever inspirational words Doherty had uttered at halftime fell on deaf ears.
The Heels never made a dent the rest of the way, even after Williams went down. Williams had just made one more sensational shot and the Duke section was still busy chanting “Ja-son Wil-liams” when he fell hard on the baseline after stretching out to deflect a pass. He didn’t get back up.
Williams eventually hobbled off with help from Krzyzewski, but even with Duke’s most disruptive defender gone, the Tar Heels limped through the final stages like they were all favoring gimpy ankles.
“Duke’s a good team, tough to play against” admitted Tar Heel Jason Capel. “Hopefully, they’ll do well in the
NCAAs. Hopefully, we will, too.”
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NOTES: Krzyzewski said that there was no way Williams could have returned to the game even if it had been close. But he also indicated that he expects to have him available on Thursday. Williams was able to climb a ladder and snip a piece of net in the victory celebration. ... Boozer has been busy on the Stairmaster and is expected to play if Duke reaches the Sweet 16.
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