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Parker nets career-high 30 as Duke tops UNC

Mar 9, 2014 - 7:24 AM Durham, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Jabari Parker went out with a bang in perhaps his final home game at Duke, tallying a career-high 30 points to lead the fourth-ranked Blue Devils to a 93-81 drubbing of North Carolina that ended the No. 14 Tar Heels' 12-game win streak.

Three days after being dealt a startling 10-point loss at ACC also-ran Wake Forest, Duke (24-7, 13-5 ACC) bounced back from that result and avenged last month's 74-66 setback to the Tar Heels behind big efforts from Parker -- widely believed to be declaring for this year's NBA Draft -- and Rodney Hood to clinch the No. 3 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

Parker added 11 rebounds while going 10-of-17 from the field, while Hood delivered 24 points on an 8-of-13 shooting rate.

"I think our momentum on defense kind of led to the success on offense. Once we got stops, we went out in transition, we got good looks, and we just built off that," Parker said.

Marcus Paige scored 24 points for North Carolina (23-8, 13-5), which shot 59.6 percent as a team but was badly beaten on the glass, recording 20 rebounds to the Blue Devils' 34 and giving up 20 second-chance points to its Tobacco Road rival.

"We got off to a bad start in the first half and bad start in the second half. First half we were able to fight back, second half we were not able to fight back from their big-time start," UNC head coach Roy Williams said.

Bryce Johnson finished with 15 points and nine rebounds in the Tar Heels' first loss since a 76-61 defeat at Virginia on Jan. 20. North Carolina will be the ACC Tournament's fourth seed.

Up 40-37 at intermission, the Blue Devils opened the second half on a 13-4 run to break open the contest and put the Tar Heels squarely on their heels. Hood's 3-point play less than three minutes in extended the lead to eight, and beyond-the-arc makes from Quinn Cook and Andre Dawkins around a basket by UNC's Leslie McDonald sent Duke up 53-41 with 15:50 to play.

The Blue Devils kept on charging, with Hood's trey with just over 14 minutes left lengthening the margin to 62-46. North Carolina countered with five straight points, but another triple from Hood ignited an 8-0 spurt that staked Duke to a 69-51 advantage following Amile Jefferson's steal and dunk with 10:52 to go.

North Carolina trailed by as many as 19 but did make a belated bid to get back in it, with Paige dropping in seven points to lead a 15-4 stretch that ended when he was fouled while draining a long-distance shot with 2:50 left. The point guard hit the ensuing free throw to pull the Tar Heels within 81-73.

UNC never got any closer, though, missing its next four shots as Duke went 5- of-6 from the line during the dry spell to take a 13-point lead into the final two minutes.

North Carolina got the first half off to a brutal start as well, committing six turnovers over the opening six minutes and falling behind 15-4 after Parker scored while drawing James Michael McAdoo's second foul with 13:49 left in the period and hit the subsequent bonus shot. The freshman sensation drove the lane and dunked shortly afterward to give the Blue Devils a 13-point cushion.

The Tar Heels gradually closed the gap, though. Consecutive layups by Johnson ignited a 12-6 push that McAdoo capped with back-to-back baskets which cut the margin to 27-23, and it was a two-point game after McDonald sank a three and fed Johnson for a transition bucket off a Duke turnover that made the score 35-33 with under two minutes to go in the half.

Duke still held a three-point edge at the break, with Parker's 16 points helping offset a 62 percent shooting display for the Tar Heels.

Game Notes

Dawkins, playing for the final time at Cameron Indoor Stadium, scored his 1,000th career point with a jumper early in the first half ... The win was Duke's 33rd straight on its home court, with UNC handing the Blue Devils their last loss at Cameron in March of 2012 ... The Tar Heels had been 5-1 against top-25 opponents this season entering the contest ... UNC lost for the first time in eight games this season when shooting better than 50 percent ... Parker's double-double was his 14th this season, tying Gene Banks' record for a Duke freshman set in 1977-78.