Game Blog from Cameron: UNC Wins, 76-68

WRAL's Dane Huffman is blogging live from Cameron Indoor Stadium at the Duke-Carolina game. Feel free to find out what's going on and weigh in with your thoughts.

11:04 p.m., UNC wins 76-68: Wow, Carolina just won with an impressive closing stretch. UNC trailed 68-66 before a strong closing run led by Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough and others.

Much more ahead on WRAL.com

10:59 p.m. Carolina up 76-68 with 22.0 seconds left.

10:55, Carolina leads, 70-68: UNC just took the lead 70-68 on a follow shot by Tyler Hansbrough. Marcus Ginyard and Danny Green missed and Hansbrough scored with 2:08 left. Duke ball now.

10:41, Duke leads, 68-66: Duke took its first lead of te second half at 68-66 on a great jump shot by Jon Scheyer.It's now 68-66 Duke ball with 3:43 to play.

10:36 p.m., teams seem tired: The pace of the game has seemed so intense that the teams almost seemed exhausted in the last few minutes. Both teams struggled to score and it's now 57-54, Duke ball.

Duke called time at 9:42 and Jon Scheyer responded with a three-pointer to tie the score at 57 with 9:42 to play.

Quentin Thomas hit a three for Carolina, Kyle Singler hit a three for Duke, Tyler Hansbrough scored inside for UNC and Lance Thomas scored inside for Duke.

Whew! Tied at 62! And there's still 8:03 to play? Wow.

10:21 p.m., Duke on a tear: Duke has slashed Carolina's lead to 51-46, thanks to some marvelous play by Greg Paulus and a surprising effort by center Brian Zoubek.

Paulus has done a terrific job in the second half, running Duke's offense and making critical shots. He converted on a three-point play after a drive and free throw and also knows when to drive and when to slow the offense down. Despite the fact that he can appear to whine, he really can play.

And Zoubek has made a difference in this half. Tyler Hansbrough just passed off when confronted with Zoubek.

Right now, it's 55-48 Carolina after a nice hanging jumper by Wayne Ellington.

DeMarcus Nelson, after not scoring in the first half, has come out strong and has six points in the half already.

Duke student behind me noticed I'd failed to capitalize "Duke" in the paragraph below ... got that fixed, Thanks!

10:11 p.m., Krzyzewski last out, with serious look; The Duke team just came out for the second half and it was several minutes before coach Mike Krzyzewski came out behind them. I waited in the alley leading into the stadium to watch.

Obviously, the Duke players had serious looks on their faces, with Carolina up 42-31. And Krzyzewski looked almost solemn as he walked past, with his ultra-serious expression.

9:57, Heels up 42-31 at halftime: Hard to believe Carolina has dominated this game they way they have. Right now, it's 42-31 at the half and there is clear concern among Duke fan.s Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson hasn't scored and was just blocked by Deon Thompson on Duke's last possession.

Greg Paulus leads Duke with 12 points. Wayne Ellington has nine and Tyler Hansbrough has eight for UNC.

9:48 p.m., Heels still up after torrid stretch: Carolina was leading 29-18 when this game just took off.

Greg Paulus hit two straight three-pointers for Duke and Kyle Singler hit a jumper over Tyler Hansbrough as Duke cut Carolina's lead to 29-23.

Danny Green scored for UNC, and then Paulus came back with an arching three-pointer that he launched while leaning back. It really was a beautiful shot to watch as it arched through the air and fell through the net. Paulus turned extended his arms sideways and brought them together to celebrate.

But Wayne Ellington responded with a marvelous three-pointer from hte left wing. Green dunked in transition over Paulus - no foul was called - and then Ellington scored in transition.

So with 1:52 left in the first half, Carolina leads, 38-26.

9:40, whew, what  a suit:  Pretty funny moment with Deon Thompson of UNC at the foul line.  From the student section behind the basket, a Duke fan popped up with nothing but a tight, black swim suit on and started gyrating in the crowd.

The fan wasn't far behind Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, who turned to watch and howled laughing.

Thompson didn't seem to flinch and made one of two.

Right now it's 29-18 Carolina after a big Greg Paulus three-pointer.

9:31 p.m., Heels up 24-13: Carolina has blown out to a 24-13 lead, which is an impressive showing, obviously. Danny Green has been enormous with 10 points - "Ten points?" as the Duke student right behind press row just gasped.

But noticeably absent is DeMarcus Nelson. Duke's only scholarship senior doesn't have a point and just had a couple of bad turnovers. On one, he couldn't get past UNC's Alex Stepheson and traveled. Then he tried to score inside, fumbled the ball and had it bounce off him out of bounds.

9:16 p.m.: Carolina's up 13-9 now and a couple of trends are evident. ..

Well, whoops! Tyler Hansbrough just dove for the ball and banged into the press row in front of me. Geez, he's big. And I hope I didn't flinch on national TV. That'd be embarrassing. And good thing he didn't crush the laptop - that'd be hard to get on the expense account.

Right after that, a horde of Duke students leaned over press row to holler at Hansbrough, so I had this big sweaty basketball player right in front and then Duke's junior class leaning over my back.

I'm just wondering if one of them can help my son with his homework ...

OK, some trends. Duke is going to struggle with Hansbrough, but they have Brian Zoubek this time. Be interesting to see how he plays.

Carolina started Quentin Thomas at point guard but Ty Lawson was in the game16:27. on UNC's first possession, he drove and bounced a pass to Danny Green for an easy layup.

Duke has Gerald Henderson on Wayne Ellington and Ellington, after a marvelous shot on Carolina's first possession, hasn't scored.

9:01 p.m, moving tribute to Carson: Pretty remarkable moment in the postgame. Both teams lined up at their foul lines, extending across the floor, and the announcer called for a moment of silence to remember UNC student body president Eve Carson. Many of the Duke players had their arms around each other's shoulders. It was a minute so quiet photographers were hesitant to take pictures because you could hear the cameras click.

After that was a rendition of the National Anthem that had everyone's attention.

8:55 p.m., Manning Brothers! Sit with us! Peyton and Eli Manning are sitting in the end zone behind the basket near the Duke bench with new Duke football coach David Cutcliffe. Of course, Eli played for Cutcliffe at Ole Miss.

The Cameron Crazies saw the Mannings and ripped off a cheer, "Manning brothers! Sit with us! Manning brothers! Sit with us!"

Best cheer earlier was, "Tyler travels! EVERY TIME!" The Duke students had that one in full throttle in warmups.

8:53 p.m., Seniors acknowledged: Huge roar for DeMarcus Nelson tonight, and for his parents here on his senior night.

8:47 p.m.,  Hey, don't kick that laptop!: Very energetic Duke cheerleader right in front of me just about kicked my laptop during a rousing chorus of the Duke fight song. And who says journalism is easy?

By the way, just saw  Barry Jacobs, who picks Duke to win, too. (see below).

Carolina just did a drill where they dove on the floor. Don't you love it when college players hustle? One thing about Duke and UNC - you don't see their players take a play off.

8:06 p.m., UNC injuries: Best sign so far is easily the UNC "injury report." Of course, that's been a part of the discussion about this game, with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski making a remark about injury reports and UNC coach Roy Williams firing back.

So one Duke student - who has a bandaged head and bandaged nose -has a sign that touts the UNC injury report.

And here it is:

"Tyler Hansbrough, runny nose" (ouch!)

"Wayne Ellington, paper cut"

"Danny Green, fatigue (from dancing)"

"Ty Lawson, stubbed toe."

By the way, that Duke student has a light blue ribbon attached to his shorts (see below).

8:02 p.m., Carson remembered: Lots of Duke students are wearing light blue ribbons that were passed out to honor Eve Carson, the UNC student body president who was killed this week.

8:00 p.m., quick prediction: Everyone has their prediction on this game, so here's mine - Duke by six. Just saw Dan Mason from 99.9 FM The Fan, and he said Duke by six, too.

Geez. Copycat.

 7:58 p.m., students rolling: OK, so we're courtside now, and the Duke students are in rare form. The Carolina players are out shooting around and one just leaned over and yelled, "Hey, ball!' at a Carolina player.

In other words, pass me the ball. ...

The Duke team is walking up and down the court doing an odd stretching exercise in which they walk and pull up their knees. Strange looking.

Ty Lawson is out shooting around now. Don't know how his ankle is doing, but gosh, he must have the baggiest pants here. They are well below his knees. Did he trip over there? Is that how he got hurt?

6:56 p.m., ESPN here: ESPN is outside with the Game Day set right outside Cameron Indoor Stadium. And hey, next time the game airs on WRAL, shouldn't we do that?

I'll add that to my "to do" list.

Just heard, by the way, that Peyton Manning and Eli Manning are coming to the game with new Duke football coach David Cutcliffe. Nice little pop for Cutcliffe for recruiting  purposes. I'll keep my eyes open for them.

Still can't help but think Wayne Ellington is the most important player in this game. He was 3 for 14 from the floor in the last game as Duke threw Gerald Henderson and others at him. I doubt he'll shoot like that again, but his struggles were critical in that contest.