The first half of last night’s Carolina-Duke game couldn’t have gone much better from a Tar Heel’s perspective. Headed into halftime with a 43-29 lead, Roy Williams’ club was getting easy baskets, hitting from the perimeter, and most of all, controlling Duke on the defensive end. But then the second half came, and it all changed.
UNC Vs. Duke: Tar Heels Start Hot, But Nolan Smith And Seth Curry Finish For The Blue Devils
And it’s all thanks to two guards that almost single-handedly tore apart the Tar Heels. SB Nation’s Duke Basketball Report elaborates on the explosion from Nolan Smith and Seth Curry:
Several things improved in the second half. Nolan Smith said the key was attacking. Did he ever. Carolina simply couldn’t keep Smith out of the lane. Smith ended with a career-high 34 points, each bigger than the last. Smith almost by himself got Carolina in foul trouble.
Krzyzewski called Smith’s performance “off the charts.”
But his offensive support came not from Singler but from Seth Curry, who played his best game in a Duke uniform. Curry hit a 3 to make it 43-37, jumpers to make the score 49-43 and 51-47 and another jumper that tied the game at 54-54, with 9:45 left. At that point, Curry and Smith were the only Duke players to have hit a field goal in the second half.
It wasn’t necessarily how Mike Krzyzewski would have drawn it up--surrendering a 14-point lead, at home, in the first half was a real cause for concern--but in the end, Duke’s best player led them past their biggest rival.
And in addition to the 34 points from Nolan Smith, Coach K can now count on Seth Curry going forward. And for a team that’s still missing freshman superstar Kyrie Irving, that’s quite a coup.
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