Duke tops 'Heels

The point guards stood out in an epic matchup last night as No. 2 Duke beat No. 10 North Carolina 89-77 in the latest edition of college basketball's premier rivalry.

"When you look at the history of this series, that matchup tonight was a pretty good one," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his William Avery against North Carolina's Ed Cota. "Both of them played a great game. You just saw two of the better point guards in the country."

Avery barely prevailed in the matchup with Cota.

Avery finished with 21 points and five assists, while Cota had 20 points and seven assists. Avery, who had seven turnovers in the first half in an overtime win over St. John's on Sunday, finished with just one, while Cota, who was bothered by a pulled muscle in his left leg, had five.

"I was trying to push him hard the entire second half," Avery said. "His team feeds off him in so many ways. As he goes, they go."

Still, Avery said it was never he and Cota but rather Duke and Carolina.

"Maybe when I was younger I would have looked at it like that," said Avery, a sophomore.

Cota, a junior, had four points over the final 18 minutes when he was obviously bothered by the leg cramps.

"Every time I moved I just pulled my muscle," Cota said. "I was doing a lot of penetration out there and that kind of hurt my legs a little bit. I'm not going to use that as an excuse or anything. Had I not gotten hurt I know I could have done some better things out there.

"They were denying me the basketball," Cota said of the deciding stretch. "I didn't do a good job of freeing myself up. I really couldn't make any cuts because of my muscle. We just didn't the execution done."

It was the Blue Devils' 15th straight victory overall and their 33rd in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

In the rivalry of the schools just eight miles apart, Duke (20-1, 8-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) had lost 10 of the previous 12 meetings, including two of three last season.

This one was supposed to be a blowout, as Duke was a 17-point favorite. The Tar Heels (17-5, 5-3) stayed right with the Blue Devils until a dry spell from the field for almost 5 1/2 minutes in the second half allowed Duke to pull away to its biggest victory in the series since 1993.

"We certainly don't have any moral victories," said Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge, who now has a 2-2 record against Duke. "I think we did a lot of good things and we've been improving. They played good defense the whole game and they came up with big plays, and that is what you have to do to win a game like this."

Ademola Okulaja scored down low to give North Carolina a 68-65 lead with 8:58 to play. Duke went on a 12-1 run as the Tar Heels went 5:27 without a field goal.

Freshman Kris Lang hit a hook in the lane to bring North Carolina within 77-72 with 3:21 left. The Cameron Crazies were able to explode just 32 seconds later when Trajan Langdon hit his third inter of the game to give Duke an 80-72 lead.

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