Thornton’s block helps No. 20 Duke edge No. 5 UNC 74-73

Meanwhile an even more-thin Duke travels to Louisville.

“This isn’t a surprise at all, because we knew how hard he works every day, going back to the first day we got on campus”, said Tyus Jones, the one-and-done point guard from last season who was in the crowd for Saturday’s upending of Virginia.

The Hall of Fame coach of the 20th-ranked Blue Devils isn’t about to argue, either.

Behind 43 points from the duo of Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram, No. 20 Blue Devils fought back from an eight-point second-half deficit to steal a 74-73 victory at the Dean E. Smith Center, stunning No. 5 North Carolina and spoiling Johnson’s 29-point, 19-rebound performance.

Given the nature of the Duke team, the Tar Heels will need to focus on their rebounding against the smaller Duke team.

Allen hit a pair of free throws with 1:09 left for the lead.

NO. 18 L’VILLE 72, SYRACUSE 58: Damion Lee scored 15, Trey Lewis added 14 and the host Cardinals (20-6, 9-4 ACC) shot 56 percent in the second half to snap a two-game losing streak.

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) – Aaron Ross scored 17 points, Keenan Evan added 14 and Texas Tech beat Oklahoma for the Red Raiders’ third straight victory over a Top 25 team.

This marks the first time Duke has won consecutive regular-season games against top-10 opponents when not ranked in the top 10, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The preseason No. 1 Tar Heels are still tied for first place in the ACC and squarely in the hunt for a No. 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, yet they’ve been far short of dominant in a year in which college basketball lacks any elite teams.

“To have that toughness they displayed with that youth is incredible”, Krzyzewski said. Ask them how they did it, that’s pretty incredible.

The sting of that decision has only increased as Ingram has emerged as one of the nation’s top freshmen and maybe the only prospect with a sliver of hope of unseating Ben Simmons as the top pick in this year’s draft. At first, I thought it was a cute play on words, but then saw that they spelled it correctly in the video’s title on YouTube.

Thornton then made a vital block on Joel Berry II and the travelers collected the stop they needed to leave Chapel Hill with another win. Allen rebounded the ball and flung it into the air to let the final seconds expire.

Five Tar Heels landed in double figures Sunday including Brice Johnson, who led UNC with a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds. The Hawkeyes scored 25 points at the free-throw line (on 35 attempts) but could get no closer than two points in the final five minutes.

“Brice is Brice”, Williams said. Matt Jones, a starter, could be out for a good while here; that ankle injury is not looking good, Krzyzewski said.

Duke Blue Devils guard Brandon Ingram (14) drives the ball against Virginia Cavaliers forward Isaiah Wilkins (21) in the second half of their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils last took four straight rivalry meetings from March 2003 to February 2005….

Bembry, who also grabbed 13 rebounds, got his points on 7-of-18 shooting. If UNC can limit these two to 30 points combined or less, they’ll draw first blood in the season series. Charles Cooke led Dayton with 16 points, while Dyshawn Pierre had 10 points and 13 rebounds. One of them was a 3-pointer from Luke Kennard with a little more than 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

The next interesting decision was allowing Marcus Paige the freedom to shoot 3-pointers deep into the second half even though it clearly wasn’t his night. Paige scored seven on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0-for-6 from 3-point range with three turnovers.