It was Senior Night with Josh Hairston, Andre Dawkins and Tyler Thorton (he usually starts) getting the starts.
In the early going, Rodney Hood scored the points with help from Dawkins. Meanwhile, Jabari Parker was grabbing the rebounds.
Interesting Note 1: Duke did a wholesale substitution -- twice. Around the 17 and 14 minute marks. The announcers said it was due to fatigue concerns. I also wonder if it was a statement regarding the fact that they're a deep team.
Interesting Note 2: NFL's Roger Goodell/Tony Romo were in the house.
Carolina scored early points by hitting Duke's interior. It wasn't looking solid for Duke's interior defense though Duke did pull to a solid early lead.
Duke's energy appeared to decline at the 9 minute mark and with that their defensive intensity. Carolina started to inch closer.
Interesting Note 3: Hairston picks up fouls in bunches.
Parker in the first half was making some crazy acrobatic shots.
Interesting Note 4: Thorton plays solid defense except when he makes silly fouls.
The 2nd half seemed to go like this on the Duke scoring end: Hood for a bunch. Parker for a bunch. Hood for a bunch.
Best jam: Amile Jefferson stealing the ball and going for the dunk.
Why doesn't Rasheed Sulaimon go for open threes? He passed on a couple open shots in the 2nd half, but when the shot clock was running down in one series he hit one. He has such a sweet stroke.
Duke had like 3 fouls in 1 minute at one point.
Interesting Note 5: I've always thought that Duke has really bad interior defense. But in this game, Carolina looked far worse.
Thorton fouled out on a three pointer by Marcus Paige, who then made it a 4-point play. Thorton and his silly fouls.
Parker and Hood led this team, but they did create some concern when Parker then Hood made poor decisions on the offensive series. Even the greats make the occasional bad decisions.
As Carolina started to get desperate, Carolina started to do full court pass and Duke fell apart for a couple series.
At the two minute mark, Carolina fouled like crazy and one had to wonder if they were fouling too soon. They fouled Jefferson at one point. I guess that was a smart one, but not the earlier Quinn Cook fouls. Of course, Jefferson just made the first one, but Parker got the rebound on the miss.
Carolina had a chance to score after a bad Duke pass with around 1:20 to play and for some reason J.P. Tokoto went for some crazy shot.
Interesting Note 6: Why can't Duke break a full court press?
Though Parker and Hood scored more then half the points, I am happy that Cook and Sulaimon scored double digits. Who knows when you might need a third or fourth person to step up and score.
Thought: I wish Carolina was playing with a full team. Kennedy Meeks was playing sick. James Michael McAdoo got into quick foul trouble. It may have made it a more intense game. Carolina did make some runs, but Duke pulled away in the 2nd half and even though the score closed a little you sort of knew that unless Duke fell apart that they had it with 4 minutes left to play.
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