Tobacco Road Showdown: Knueppel, Flagg help No. 2 Duke pull away late to beat rival UNC 82-69

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- One of the biggest rivalries in college basketball met again Saturday night at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.

The North Carolina Tar Heels hosted the Duke Blue Devils at the Dean E. Smith Center.

Freshman Kon Knueppel scored 17 points to help No. 2 Duke beat rival North Carolina 82-69 on Saturday night and clinch the outright Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.

Cooper Flagg added 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists despite first-half foul trouble for the Blue Devils (28-3, 19-1).

Duke blew a 15-point first-half lead and trailed by seven midway early after the break, but responded with 12 consecutive points to turn the game and silence a roaring hostile crowd.

The Blue Devils are now in position to rise to No. 1 in Monday's AP Top 25 poll with top-ranked Auburn losing its past two games.

Fifth-year senior RJ Davis scored 20 points in his final home game for Tar Heels (20-12), who were blown out in the first meeting but responded with far more resilience this time before Duke asserted control to stretch out the lead in the final seven minutes.

Takeaways

Duke: The Final Four favorite completed the first 19-1 regular-season slate since the ACC moved to 20 games in 2019-20.

UNC: The Tar Heels had won six straight coming in with their best play of the season to play their way back into better positioning for an NCAA bid. But this was their last certain chance to add a resume-topping win to help that case.

Key moment

UNC led 59-53 when Duke made its move with 12 straight points in a 15-2 burst that put the Blue Devils ahead to stay. That included Knueppel's backdoor layup for the lead, while versatile defender Maliq Brown had a big 3-pointer in his return from injury that pushed Duke to a 68-61 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left.

Key stat

UNC missed 22 of its last 27 shots in the final 15-plus minutes as Duke made its move.

Up next

The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday in Charlotte. Duke opens play as the 1-seed in Thursday's quarterfinals. UNC is the 5-seed and will play in Wednesday's second round.

Previous Matchup

Cooper Flagg had 21 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in his Duke-North Carolina rivalry debut, helping the second-ranked Blue Devils roll past the Tar Heels 87-70 on Saturday, Feb. 1.

Fellow freshman Kon Knueppel scored 22 points for Duke (19-2, 11-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which shot 52.8% and made 10 of 20 from 3-point range to win their 15th straight game.

RJ Davis and Drake Powell each scored 12 points to lead the Tar Heels (13-10, 6-5), who fell behind 40-13 and trailed by as many as 32 points.

After the game, Blue Devil fans gathered around a bonfire to celebrate the team's victory over their rivals.

ESPN contributed to this report.