MP3#7)Duke Sinks North Carolina at the Buzzer

Duke (20-4) was coming off a rare home loss to Miami on Super Bowl Sunday and was looking to rebound against the 9th ranked team, the North Carolina Tar Heels (20-4). Throughout the season, the Tar Heels have been significantly higher rated than the Blue Devils and believed a matchup at the Dean Dome would be a walk in the park. This is one of the best rivalry in sports and on Wednesday night, it lived up to the hype. The game started out fast, with the Devils getting their points off threes from Austin Rivers, Seth, Curry, and Andre Dawkins, while the Tar Heels were getting points in the paint from Tyler Zeller, who had 19 points in the first half. After 20 minutes of play, Duke was playing tough with North Carolina, down only 3 (43-40) at halftime.

The second half was a different story for the Tar Heels, as they came out and took control of the game. Harrison Barnes had the Heels to a double-digit lead that no one thought they would relinquish. However, throughout the later parts of the second half, the Tar Heels were unable to put the Blue Devils away, giving them a slight chance in the end. The run started with 2 minutes left on the clock. A three by Tyler Thornton cut it to 7. All of the sudden, a Duke steal led to a Seth Curry three and just like that, the North Carolina lead was 4. With a 1:30 left, Kelly hit a baseline jumped to cut the lead to 2. After Zeller made one of two free throws, Duke came down and Kelly attempted a three which was miraculously zipped in by Zeller, cutting the lead to 1 with 15 seconds left. Again, Tyler Zeller was only able to make 1 of 2 three throws, setting the game up for a photo finish. The fantastic freshman, Austin Rivers, who had already sunk 5 three-pointers and had 26 points in the game, was determined to flex his muscles. With 5 seconds left, he stepped up and took the biggest three of his life. To the enjoyment of him and his teammates, the ball fell through the net as time expired, giving Duke the 85-84 win. This was a game was of the best of all time and has gotten Austin Rivers' name etched into the wonderful rivalry.

Since I am a huge Duke fan, I felt that I had to write about this because it was such a great game. Going into it, I would have been happy if the Devils were able to keep it within 10, just because all of the talent that North Carolina had. With three minutes left, I thought it was over and was about to go to bed. I decided to stay up and witness the best comeback I have seen in about 10 years of watching college basketball. I was so happy when Rivers hit that three that I actually hit my head on the ceiling, waking both of my parents up. They should have been mad, but were not because I was so happy. The Dukies were able to steal a win against a top 5 team and this has to give them a wealth of confidence going forward in conference play.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/sports/ncaabasketball/ncaa-basketball-roundup.html?ref=ncaabasketball