The long road that was Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell tour has ended in a crash landing.
With a gritty second-half performance, North Carolina pulled off an unexpected upset that spoiled Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The odds were clearly stacked against the Tar Heels—Duke went into Saturday’s matchup ranked No. 4, had already clinched the No. 1 seed for the ACC tournament and will do no worse than tie for first place in the ACC regular season standings.
But, a 94–81 victory in front of a packed Cameron Indoor Stadium and 96 former Blue Devils players added a bump in the long road of Coach K’s farewell tour. A 55-point second half gave North Carolina the push it needed to redeem its 87–67 blowout loss at the Dean Dome earlier this season.
Four different Tar Heels—Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Brady Manek—scored 20 or more points, while Duke’s Paolo Banchero was the only Blue Devil to reach the 20-point mark.
Love struggled a majority of the night before finding his rhythm late to finish with 22 points largely thanks to going 12-for-12 at the free throw line despite going 4-for-17 from the field. Meanwhile, Manek led the team with 11 rebounds.
The 13-point margin of defeat marked Duke’s third-largest loss to an unranked opponent under Krzyzewski and ultimately halted the program’s seven-game win streak. Now, the Tobacco Road rivals will prepare for the ACC tournament and head to Brooklyn.
The Blue Devils, who are the No. 1 seed, will open tournament play Thursday at noon. Meanwhile, the Saturday night win secured North Carolina a third seed spot, landing it in Thursday night’s final quarterfinal.
