Heels Catch Fire, Smoke No. 1 Duke

Advantage: North Carolina Tar Heels.

In the first segment of what most observers think will be at least a three-part miniseries over the next two months, No. 2 North Carolina rolled past No. 1 Duke 97-73 Thursday night in a battle of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball megapowers.

For the Tar Heels (23-1), it was a test of their character as well as their ability.

Although first-year coach Bill Guthridge’s team had rolled past everyone but Maryland, games against their archrivals just down the road in Durham have always been regarded as true tests of how good the Tar Heels are.

Before a record Smith Center crowd of 22,050, everyone learned that the Heels are very good indeed.

Led by All-America forward Antawn Jamison’s 35 points, the Heels breezed to a 50-34 halftime lead, expanded it to 20 points midway through the second half, withstood a Duke run, and coasted home.

It was a compact 40 minutes of basketball that showed the best of Carolina basketball to the entire country.

“We had a chance,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who saw his team go on a 15-0 run that cut the lead to four points with just under 6 minutes left before the Tar Heels re-established control. “But we played too much of the game before we got on the court. I don’t think we’re ready for this caliber game yet. We haven’t played games of this magnitude. We have to learn about it.”

Carolina was certainly willing to teach the Devils (20-2).

From the start, the Tar Heels, who are playing remarkably well under Guthridge, former Carolina coach Dean Smith’s longtime assistant, established themselves as masters of their own house.

“I thought both teams played a little tight early,” said Guthridge. “I think that can be attributed to both teams wanting to win very badly. Mike and I have both said that tonight is just another league game and we both have big games on Saturday.”

But Thursday night was more than just another league game. It was Duke-Carolina, No. 1 vs. No. 2, the first such meeting since Massachusetts vs. Kentucky in the 1996 Final Four semifinals.

To win, somebody had to step up his game. Jamison, a contender for national Player of the Year honors, certainly did his part. Scoring 23 points in the first half, the 6-foot-9 Jamison was all over the court as the Tar Heels turned the game into an apparent rout.

But Duke wasn’t quite ready to make a concession speech at halftime, despite a horrendous performance in which it shot only 35 percent compared with the Tar Heels’ 67 percent.

After falling behind by 20 with 15:02 left, the Devils made a determined comeback that pulled them within 73-69 with 5:48 left.

With 3:45 left and Carolina holding a 79-73 lead, the Tar Heels went on an 18-0 game-closing run for their biggest win over Duke in 16 years.

“We definitely had to suck it up at the end,” said Jamison. “Things started to go their way, but we came back on key and got together. Great teams do that, and we definitely did tonight.”

One of Duke’s problems was inexperience. With a squad dominated by freshmen, the Devils, as Krzyzewski said, hadn’t encountered this intensity - the game was treated like a Final Four encounter all week.

Duke, which hadn’t trailed at halftime all season, found itself in a hole that few teams can climb out of against Carolina.

And the Tar Heels exploited their experience. “We’ve been down by 20, we’ve been up by 20,” said Jamison. “They haven’t been down at all, especially that much. Once you have freshmen in that situation, you don’t know how they are going to react. Tonight we did a terrific job and they did an excellent job of coming back. But we continued to play basketball like we did know how.”

Krzyzewski knows it’s not a one-game season, at least not yet. “Carolina was great,” he said. “Congratulations to them. See you next time.”

That’s in three weeks at Duke.