UNC 75, Duke 73
What an unbelievable game! I admit it, I was not very optimistic at the 5 minute mark. With 3 minutes to go, we were down by 9 points after a 9-0 Duke run and we couldn't seem to find the basket. We ended the game by going on a 9-0 run ourselves including some incredible plays. I thought at the 2 minute mark that everything would have to go right for us and everything go wrong for Duke for us to win. That's pretty much what happened.
Redick started off on fire, but went 0'fer in the second half. He had a good look at the basket for the final play to win it, but it rattled out.
Highlights:
Player of the game was no doubt Sean May. He has been putting up some All-American performances lately and this one topped it off. 24 rebounds! 12 defensive and 12 offensive. On top of that he scored 26 points. All while Sheldon Williams, one of the best defensive centers in the country, guarded him. And what I especially liked was that Sean didn't get blocked like he has in the past. (Marvin Williams on the other hand got stuffed several times.)
On the whole, the team had an off night shooting, except for Jackie Manuel whom went 5 for 6. He did an excellent job of driving to the basket. It was some of the most aggressive offensive I've seen from him.
Lowlights:
Our shooting in the second half was horrible. We only made 1 three pointer the whole game. Jawad was 3 for 10 and Felton was 3 for 13. We obviously miss an outside presence like McCants. The good news is that McCants is suppose to start working out today and could possibly start playing again in the game on Friday. We need him in the upcoming tourneys.
The refs were confused all night. They started off calling everything in the first half and loosened up considerably in the second and called hardly anything. They also made a couple of bad make up fouls. This is the tangled web refs weave when they call things close and try to keep things even throughout the game.
This was one of the most exciting games in recent memory for UNC. And best of all, we are ACC CHAMPIONS!!!
