Duke freshman star, Austin Rivers, saved his best basketball for the biggest stage. Rivers netted a career high 29 points against arch-rival North Carolina and dropped this dagger three pointer as the buzzer sounded.
North Carolina led for the entire second half, but timely shots down the stretch from Duke’s Tyler Thorton, Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly helped fuel a late push. Also, thanks to a Tyler Zeller tip in on his own basket, Duke, which had previously been trailing by 10 points with a little under 3 minutes to play, cut UNC’s lead down to two points.
Although he scored 23 points and had 11 rebounds, UNC fans will look to Zeller as the scapegoat. Zeller missed two big free throws at the end, had the tip in on his own basket, and was guarding Rivers without a hand in his face on this final shot. Nonetheless, a very exciting game that UNC gave away.
