UNC Basketball: 3 keys to victory over Duke in ACC regular season finale

The Tar Heels travel to Durham to take on the Blue Devils with the ACC regular season title on the line. What does UNC need to do to sweep the season series?

Carolina will be all smiles on Saturday if Elliot Cadeau and Harrison Ingram play their best / Grant Halverson/GettyImages

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There's always plenty on the line when North Carolina faces Duke. The Tobacco Road rivals have dominated the ACC for decades, and they once again find themselves at the top of the conference standings with just one game left before the ACC Tournament.

The Tar Heels clinched at least a share of the regular season ACC title by blowing Notre Dame out of the Dean Dome on Tuesday, but Duke can join them atop the standings with a win on Saturday.

Carolina won the first meeting in Chapel Hill last month, a 93-84 game that it led for the final 28 minutes. This weekend's game in Cameron Indoor Stadium promises to be a taller task, though. Duke has won eight of nine since losing to the Tar Heels, and its last three wins over Louisville, Virginia, and N.C. State have come by an average of over 21 points.

A second win over the Blue Devils would not only give the Tar Heels their first solo regular season ACC title since 2017 (they shared first place with Virginia in 2019), it would also keep them in play for a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, a tremendous accomplishment given the disappointment of last year when they missed the Big Dance entirely. What does UNC have to do to score its biggest road win of the season?

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