Duke Survives A 23 Point UNC Comeback In The 2025 ACC Semifinals, 74-71

As Jae’Lyn Withers emerges as the heel of the Heels

For everyone who thought this rivalry didn’t matter anymore, we present the Duke-UNC semifinal game of 2025.

Duke had a 24 point lead at halftime before UNC made a tremendous comeback to make this a classic Duke-UNC matchup that Duke ultimately won, 74-71 - thanks to a huge mistake by Jae’Lyn Withers.

Duke was without Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown and it showed early as Elliot Cadeau found Ven-Allen Lubin twice for lobs.

Things started to heat up to the Duke-UNC standard when Jalen Washington tagged Patrick Ngongba in the face, drawing a dead-ball technical. Shortly thereafter, Washington goaltended Ngongba and Ngongba caught Washington in the face with an elbow but wasn’t called, irritating UNC coach Hubert Davis.

Duke started to play more coherently after that, hitting some threes and Ngongba showing some beautiful offensive savvy with drives and passes worthy of a senior.

And soon, Duke took total control of the first half. The offense was solid but the defense really pressured UNC as the Blue Devils closed out the first half on a 15-0 run. UNC’s last basket came at the 5:03 mark when Cadeau hit an open three to make it 30-24.

Cadeau got his third foul about one minute later and the Tar Heels kind of collapsed in his absence.

Isaiah Evans, who is a world-class sniper, was sensational on defense, which, as Corey Alexander pointed out, he’s not exactly noted for.

Duke held UNC to 35.7 percent overall in the first half and Cadeau’s three was the only one that the Tar Heels got before halftime, hitting just 1-10.

Khaman Maluach also had some terrific play in the first half. We expect him to do well on defense, but he also hit two jump hooks and an agile shot that started as a dunk before he had to convert it to a more graceful jumper, to the astonishment of Flagg on the bench, whose face lit up when he saw it. Malauch also had six rebounds.

Tyrese Proctor and Sion James both had seven at the half while Kon Knueppel led the way with 12 points and, as he so often does, in floor burns too.

In the second half, UNC came out with considerably more fire and put game pressure on the Blue Devils for the first time a long time.

Cadeau two immediate assists to start the second half and Duke had two drives to counter.

UNC tried to press but it didn’t work very well with Duke scoring twice in transition.

However, the Tar Heels showed more effort on defense and cut the lead to 54-37 with 12:48 to play. After that, things got interesting.

The Tar Heels began to cut into the lead, cutting it down to 52-35 on a Ven-Allen basket.

Duke still had a 14 point lead with 7:41 to go at 65-51 but UNC kept coming.

With 6:17 left, Lubin cut the lead to 10 at 66-56 and after a Patrick Ngongba dunk, Cadeau hit a three to cut the lead to single digits at 68-59.

With 4:19 to go, Trimble converted a three point play to make it a six point game at 70-64 and the pressure started to affect the Blue Devils. Sion James missed a layup and Ngongba picked up a foul. Trimble hit both free throws to make it 70-66 with 3:41 to play.

At this point, Duke didn't really have any swagger but was more holding on. Drake Powell cut the lead to 72-68 with 1:52 left.

Knueppel missed a basket with :32 left and Duke up 72-69. Trimble made his freebies to make it 72-71 with :32 left.

Proctor, who nailed down the win last season over Clemson at the line with :01 left, had a one-and-one with :20 seconds and missed the front end. And then came the play of the game: with :04 left, Malauch fouled out and put Lubin on the line. Duke was still up 72-71 and he missed his first. Then, for whatever reason decipherable only to himself, Withers stepped into the lane. Evans erupted with glee, knowing that Withers had just made an enormous error.

After a timeout, Duke got the ball in to Knueppel who was promptly fouled, putting the 92 percent free throw shooter on the line, where he did not disappoint.

Now down, 74-71, the Tar Heels got the ball across half court on the inbounds and called a time out, hoping to set up a three point play.

Lubin was probably not their first choice, but he got the ball and took the shot with :02 left to play.

It bounced off the side of the rim and Duke, after a dominant first half without Flagg or Brown, and with a near-collapse in the second, survived to move to the ACC Championship game on Saturday.

It was a surreal second half and one that the Blue Devils were fortunate to survive, but survive they did, moving to 30-3 on the season, which is hugely impressive.

Notes - we saw a brilliant performance from young Ngonga who has really come on...prior to the second half meltdown, Duke was toying with UNC...the Heels got shots inside but shot just 3-17 from behind the line...RJ Davis got none which speaks well of Duke’s defense...both teams were poor from the line with UNC hitting 16-24 (66.7%) and Duke 15-22 (68.2 percent)...the bottom line though is that Duke won without its transcendent star and for a good bit of the game played at a high level without him...