bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
DURHAM -- Fifteen seconds in Saturday's game between No. 4 Duke and North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Marcus Ginyard hit a free throw to give the Tar Heels the first point of the game.
Turns out it would be the Tar Heels' only lead of the game and the closest the score would ever be.
The Blue Devils then hit their next three shots -- all 3-pointers -- to go up 9-3 two minutes into the game, and the Tar Heels could never recover as Duke routed UNC 82-50. It was UNC's worse loss ever in Durham, and one of its worst games of the season in a year full of bad losses.
Ginyard said that when he looked at the scoreboard and saw the Tar Heels were down by 30 points in the second half, his thoughts were not fit to print.
"This is about as nasty as it can be," Ginyard said.
There were not many, if any, positives for UNC to take away from the game as Duke thoroughly dominated the Tar Heels. UNC had won four straight in Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Duke unleashed four years of pent-up frustration against the Tar Heels, who looked hapless at times.
"Everyone single one of them looked like they really wanted to get after it, as they should have" Ginyard said. "For us to not want to get at it right back is just tough to explain."
Duke exposed the problems that have plagued UNC all season long and dominated the game in almost every statistical category.
The Tar Heels could not score, could not play defense and were outrebounded 37-28. UNC had just 16 field goals -- 10 in the first half -- and allowed Duke to finish the game shooting 45.6 percent from the floor. The Tar Heels also turned the ball over 15 times and were 1 for 5 from beyond the arc.
"There's not a lot you can say; we got our tails kicked," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "I told them if they take this and learn something form it and change, you can still get something. But if you just say, 'Oh well,' you're not going to get anything from it."
It also did not help that the Tar Heels added another player to their injury report. Freshman guard Leslie McDonald joined freshman forward David Wear and sophomore forward Ed Davis on the bench in a suit after straining his right hamstring during practice Friday. McDonald is the ninth Tar Heel to miss a game because of an injury this season.
Still, the players said they were shocked at the final score, especially after entering Saturday's game with back-to-back wins.
"I couldn't believe it," said Ginyard, who ends his career 4-1 in Durham. "Four times is nice, but that ended tonight."
The Tar Heels did not reach double figures until halfway through the first half, and chants of "N-I-T" and "More than double" could be clearly heard before the break.
The Blue Devils continued to dominate in the second half, and with 3:47 left to play Duke's band began playing "Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye."
"We didn't expect them to lay down," Larry Drew II said. "It's frustrating, it's embarrassing. I really don't know what else to say."
