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Seth Trimble hits game-winning 3 to complete No. 14 UNC's largest comeback win over No. 4 Duke in 25 years

· Yahoo Sports

With the game tied and less than a minute to go Saturday night in the Dean Smith Center, Duke forward Cameron Boozer knocked the ball loose from a driving Seth Trimble. 

Boozer's ensuing take, however, didn't result in points, either. 

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And Trimble, a senior guard, got one more chance for a defining moment in a historic regional matchup that had been split evenly over its past 120 iterations.

He swished a go-ahead 3 that sent the Dean Smith Center into pandemonium. 

Fans stormed the court, only to find out there were 0.4 seconds remaining.

All of them had to return to their seats, and equipment staff anxiously cleared the hardwood of debris — all of that for Duke's inbound heave to not change a 71-68 result, UNC's largest comeback win versus Duke in 25 years.

A motivated Caleb Wilson, who revealed to Andscape in the lead-up to the rivalry showdown that Duke stopped talking to the forward in his recruitment, logged 17 of UNC's 29 first-half points and finished with 23. Boozer, another top-five NBA Draft prospect, turned in 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Duke sliced through UNC's defense with well-timed cuts in the game's opening minutes. One of those helped fuel a 10-0 Blue Devils run that staked them to a 18-5 lead, as center Patrick Ngongba II whipped a pass to wing Dame Sarr, who then deposited a dunk.

Duke scored 12 of its first 18 points in the paint.

Wilson didn't get many touches early, and he didn't score until the 13:18 mark in the first half. But his drought-ending turnaround jumper set up a pretty up-and-under that gave the Tar Heels a shot in the arm.

UNC doubled Boozer early and often. His first points, and shot, came on a tip-in close to eight and a half minutes into the matchup.

After Wilson scored eight straight points for the Tar Heels, wing Jonathan Powell drilled a 3 to pull his team back within six points of the Blue Devils, making it a 22-16 game. 

Wilson tacked on another UNC triple, and, following two quick fouls, Boozer took a seat on the bench with 9:33 left before intermission and the Tar Heels building what would be a 9-0 surge.

He sat for less than two minutes, though, and Duke held onto its lead down the stretch of the first half, even restoring a double-digit advantage, first with a 3 from Cameron Boozer and then with another from his twin brother, Cayden Boozer.

Having shot a mere 9 of 27, or 33%, from the floor and accounted for just 11 of the game's 33 rebounds across the first 20 minutes of action, UNC found itself down 41-29 at the break. Center Henri Veesaar came in averaging 16.8 points and 9 rebounds per game yet had 0 points and 2 rebounds in the first half.

To start the second half, Wilson picked up where he left off, knocking down a tough jumper over Cameron Boozer, whom Wilson notably swatted for a highlight-reel block in the first half.

Then Wilson used a jab step to set the stage for a left-handed layup. While his clinic continued, so did Duke's lead, as Caleb Foster and, later, Sarr poured in 3-pointers.

But Veesaar's first points, followed by Jarin Stevenson's second 3 of the second half, decreased the Tar Heels' deficit to five. That sequence jumpstarted a flurry of offense on both ends.

UNC and Duke traded buckets up until the half's second media timeout, with the Tar Heels' effort level noticeably higher than it was at the beginning of the game.

The scoring slowed in the subsequent minutes. Isaiah Evans blocked Wilson, and Boozer netted his second triple, putting the Blue Devils up 62-53.

That said, UNC didn't go away. Derek Dixon sank a 3 that ignited the arena.

He made one more less than four minutes later, and Veesaar followed suit to tie the game at 68-68.

Veesaar bounced back from a quiet first half with 13 second-half points and the defense that shut down Boozer on his potential game-winning drive.

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