On Monday, Malcolm Brogdon and Cat Barber dueled in the first of this week’s two matchups between the four ACC Player of the Year candidates. That piece can be seen here, and Brogdon’s performance likely would have been the most dominant single game performance in the conference this season if it weren’t for Brice Johnson’s 39 points and 23 rebounds in Tallahassee.

Leading up to the game on Wednesday, Grayson Allen was the topic of discussion. Did he travel? Should the shot have counted? His game winner against Virginia on Saturday guaranteed that the Blue Devils would be ranked when they entered Chapel Hill. In Chapel Hill, the students made sure that Allen knew their opinion on the subject, as a steady chant of “Grayson Traveled” serenaded his warmups.

Once the ball was thrown into the air to start this edition of college basketball’s top rivalry, it was Brice Johnson that was doing more than enough to stake his claim to the ACC Player of the Year award. And then he disappeared with 11 minutes to go. As Brice was inexplicably removed from the gameplan, so too were UNC’s hopes for a simple victory over Duke.

At halftime, when Johnson had 18 points and 11 rebounds, I started searching for the statistical apex for an individual Tar Heel in this rivalry. When Johnson scored the first six points for UNC in the second half, I made the mistake of texting that we could be seeing history. With 12:55 remaining in the game (over 32% of the game still to go!), Brice Johnson had 27 points and 17 rebounds and the Tar Heels held a six point advantage. According to Goduke.statsgeek.com, Sean May has the only 20/20 game for UNC in the rivalry when he had 26 points and 24 boards in 2005. At that moment, it was inconceivable that Brice would not pulverize that mark. Over those final 12:55, Johnson had one field goal attempt, and totaled just two points and two rebounds. It was during this time that the focus shifted from Brice Johnson to another ACC POY candidate, Duke’s Grayson Allen. He had 7 points and 4 rebounds down the stretch as UNC’s lead evaporated and the crowd grew nervous. It was Duke’s defense and UNC’s lack of awareness in regards to the effectiveness of their low post game that ultimately ruined Brice’s party, and Allen was more than happy to take advantage of the opportunity.

BRICE JOHNSON

With his first put-back slam off a missed shot on Wednesday, there was a feeling that Brice may have had “it” against Duke. And he did. Roy Williams and UNC fans alike were hoping to see an aggressive and engaged Brice. They got all that and more on Wednesday night. Take a look at his first bucket:

Brice finds himself about three feet away from Marcus Paige as he launches a 3 point attempt. Instead of watching the shot and getting back on defense, he starts looking for his path to the basket immediately. Both Brandon Ingram and Derryck Thornton show no interest in finding him and Johnson makes them pay with an athletic finish that few in college basketball can consider. This was the start of his dominance and it continued for the next 24 minutes, up until this play where he takes advantage of Ingram helping on a Joel Berry drive:

The immediacy with which he attacked the basket after the catch made it appear that he would remain locked in for the rest of the game. Instead, the Heels stopped penetrating, settling for jump shots down the stretch. Compare the Tar Heels shooting splits before and after the 11:10 mark in the second half. Paige and Berry were a combined 0-11, nearly all of them jump shots.

Maybe Brice was exhausted after his scorching start. Maybe Roy wanted to stay away from the zone, despite Marshall Plumlee having four fouls and Duke having no intention of giving backup Chase Jeter any minutes. I don’t know. What I do know is this went from “The Brice Game” to “The Ingram and Allen Hour”, and Duke took full advantage of the Heel miscues.

Grayson Allen

Brandon Ingram has received a lot of credit in the last 16 hours for scoring 13 second half points and six straight once Duke found themselves in an eight point hole, but the key to their game was Grayson Allen. He and Ingram combined for 17 of Duke’s final 21 points, and the sophomore scored 23 overall to push his season average to 20.7 per game. NC State’s Cat Barber has been in the discussion for ACC POY due to his amazing offensive numbers despite the Wolfpack’s lack of success. Let’s compare Barber and Allen:

Team W-L in ACC Points per Game Rebounds per Game Assists per game Cat Barber 3-10 23.7 4.6 4.5 Grayson Allen 9-4 20.7 4.8 4.5

With just three points separating them in the scoring department, I don’t think there is an argument to be made when you factor in team success. Barber and Allen are on pace to be the 25th and 26th ACC players to average 20 points a game for a single season since 1994-95 according to sport-reference.com. As has been mentioned all season, Allen averaged 4.4 points per game last year. He has obviously gotten more of an opportunity in his sophomore season, but that jump is outrageous in any context.

Allen kept the Dean Dome from combusting on many possessions, as he played the role of one-man-fastbreak on more than one occasion to catch UNC on their heels. Despite a 7-18 shooting night, he was repeatedly slashing through the lane and causing confusion for the UNC defense. Despite getting blocked on multiple shots, he kept diving into the lane. Allen attempted double digit free throws for the third time in four games, a sign of his aggressiveness and confidence as the end of the season nears. The play below caught my eye:

Allen sees the Paige matchup and decides to drive. As he drives, he sees Brice Johnson drifting away from Marshall Plumlee. Knowing he won’t get past Paige, he spins at the free throw line to read Brice Johnson. Brice has retreated back to Plumlee to defend a potential pass from Allen. Knowing that he only has to shoot over Paige, Grayson quickly reverses course again, showing his strength as he moves Paige under the rim, and shoots over his left shoulder. The contact from Paige was minimal and the foul call could be questioned, but drawing those calls has been one of the better parts of Allen’s game this year.

What This Means in the ACC POY Race

If you asked me at 10:30 PM last night, I would have said Brice will be comfortably ahead and with consistently good games the rest of the way, the award would be his to lose. At 11:15 PM, that was not the case as his torrid pace came to an abrupt halt. At the end of the day, he posted 29 points and 19 rebounds and was clearly the most dominant player on the court, but only for 3/4 of the game. His performance would have been elevated with a rivalry win, but this was a great showing. Three ranked opponents remain for the Tar Heels, and he will likely need one more of these exceptional outputs to rise above Malcolm Brogdon and Grayson Allen.

Grayson Allen’s play down the stretch in a rabid Chapel Hill will certainly stick with the voting members over the next two weeks. If Duke can win on the road at Louisville, they will have three very winnable games against Florida State, Pittsburgh, and Wake Forest before the rematch with UNC in Cameron. If Allen can find a way to score 100 points in these next four (he is averaging 22.4 over his last five), that final game in Durham will be quite the stage for him to make a final argument for his candidacy.

Header photo: Chuck Liddy, News & Observer