Duke is Awesome Baby, With a Capital A

In the last three meetings against their hated rival, Duke came up short. Tonight, Duke used one of the best shooting performances of the season to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who the best team was. Duke will leave Chapel Hill with more than a two game lead in the ACC. They will return to Durham with even more swagger than they have had all year.

The question will still be put in the minds of people who watched this game. What would have happened if Ty Lawson was in for North Carolina? No question that UNC is a great team with Lawson at the helm. But they will get another shot at Duke in March. For right now Duke is on a serious high, and winning games the way everyone expects them too.

Six players for Duke were in double-figures. Paulus(18) and Scheyer(17) lead the way for Duke. Even with all the foul trouble that Duke had to get past, there core guys, and there is a lot of them, helped keep UNC away at never let them get the lead back after about 11 minutes left in the first. Pretty impressive considering how good UNC is. Periodically throughout the game Duke would go on a run at get up by 10 or 11. But this rivalry wasn’t built on blowouts. Carolina would still fight their way back. With little time left and Duke trying to drain the clock, UNC got a little momentum with a big Danny Green three. But that was the last cheers you heard from the Dean Dome, and Duke played their game and finished off the Tar Heels.

Greg Paulus was absolutely deadly in the first half. Everything he threw up went in. He finished 6-8 from behind the arc, and was the reason that Duke owned the momentum throughout the game. He was an absolute stud tonight, and even his Tar Heel QB brother had to stand up and cheer. While Singler and Scheyer all played big minutes and put up big numbers (Scheyer-17 points, Singler-14 points 10 rebounds), a big hats off to one of the key players in this game…..Lance Thomas was huge tonight for Duke. The numbers won’t jump out at you (10 points, 5 boards), but he was 5-7 from the field and had some huge baskets in the second half that kept Carolina from ever finding rhythm. Like I said, the numbers weren’t amazing, but this was one of his best nights, being that he was so important in this win.

As a Duke fan, everything is better after beating Carolina. No matter how many excuses they might come up with, the entire nation saw Duke beat go to the Dean Dome and take down Carolina. I don’t really care about what the nation thinks about my team, but people definitely look at you different when you are wearing a Duke shirt, and they are winning. And of course this puts Duke two games ahead of Carolina for the ACC, and lets us control our destiny. And this year is huge because the number one seed in the East will be staying in Carolina till the Final Four. WOW, how great is in to talk about the Final Four after last year. Just saying, not being cocky, but damn I love this team.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Greg Paulus, Lance Thomas
Both these players were the two best for the winning team. Paulus was huge in the numbers, and like I said before kept Duke on top throughout the game. Lance looked great in the second half, and really played good defense down low against Hansborough as the game started to get into “closing” time. Great game from both of these players.

I think we should all take tomorrow and savor this win. However, after that it is back to business for Duke.

Next up: Duke will be back at Cameron and host Boston College, for a Saturday game at noon. The most important thing for Duke is not to have a let down after such a big win. The season is far from over, and they need to continue to play at a high level to reclaim the ACC championship.

Photo courtesy of ESPN(Picture Link)