North Carolina captured sole possession of the ACC regular season title on Saturday by going on the road and beating Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium, avenging their earlier loss to the Blue Devils in Chapel Hill.
All five starters scored in double figures for the Tar Heels, but it was senior Brice Johnson who blew the game open with his 18 points and 21 rebounds, 12 of which came on the offensive glass as UNC outrebounded their bitter rivals 64-29.
This is Carolina’s seventh ACC regular season title under head coach Roy Williams, but the first since the 2011-2012 season. Every season that the Tar Heels have won the conference crown under Williams, they’ve at least made a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament–two of those seasons ended with a national title, another with his third Final Four at the helm of the program.
The Tar Heels will enter this coming week’s ACC Tournament with the top-seed, but will try to fend off all challengers, like Miami, Virginia, and Duke. North Carolina has only won the conference tournament twice under Williams, though neither came during either of his national title runs.
Getting senior Marcus Paige back on track is priority number one for the Heels, as he continues to struggle from the field in spectacular form. Against Duke, he may have scored 11 points but he was 3-for-10 from the field and 1-for-8 from three point range. In fact, Paige has shot better than 50-percent from the field just twice since the turn of the calendar year, and not since February 12 in UNC’s win over Pitt.
Want to give your comments about this article? You can either leave them here or you can join us on the Get More Sports Forum and talk about this article and many more! Brag about your favorite team, argue about an athlete’s performance or tell us about a game you saw. Join a new community of sports fans who live and breathe sports and sports entertainment. It’s free! Join now!
