DURHAM, N.C. — Headlines across the country have been screaming Grayson Allen’s name for months.

But in Duke’s locker room after his Blue Devils knocked off rival North Carolina 86-78 in a thriller Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it was almost hard to hear the soft-spoken junior talk about the win. A group of reporters huddled around Allen, leaning in not because of space constraints but in an effort to actually hear what he was saying.

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The smile, though? That was hard to miss.

“Yeah, I’m feeling very comfortable,” he said. “And I’m having a lot of fun playing.”

Allen turned in what was, all things considered, his best performance of the season in the one game that means more than any other regular-season game to every Duke fan. Allen scored 25 points — he went 7 for 12 from beyond the 3-point arc — and added three assists and three rebounds before fouling out with about a minute remaining in the game.

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“Tonight I think I was a little more aggressive with my shot than I have been, and that was just the fact that people are starting to stay home on Luke (Kennard),” Allen said. “I’ve tried to have an eye for him because he’s been hot, and people are starting to stay home on him, especially on my drives, and that opens up more for one-on-one opportunities or more space.”

And this is the part where we say, yes, Allen brought most of the unwanted attention on himself. He blatantly tripped opponents. He deserved to be suspended — probably for more than the one game he served — and he deserved criticism for his actions. But he didn’t deserve the level of scrutiny he received, for example, for this non-incident vs. Florida State.

It’s not that anyone should feel sorry for him, for that attention. Let’s be clear about that. But at some point we all need to let that go. This feels like a good time, weeks removed from any real incident.

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Cool? Let’s move on.

“Grayson had an amazing game,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “The last few ballgames he’s played so darn well.”

This was Allen’s fourth consecutive game with at least 19 points. The 18th-ranked Blue Devils (19-5, 7-4 ACC) have won all four, which isn’t a coincidence. It’s not that the winning streak is all Allen, of course — Kennard has continued to play like a first-team All-American, and freshman Jayson Tatum put up 19 points Thursday for the second time in three games — but Allen’s improved shooting from beyond the arc is a big reason.

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In those four games, Allen has made 20 3-pointers (in 41 attempts). Compare that to how he had been misfiring from beyond the arc; when Duke went 3-4 in a recent seven-game stretch, Allen was just 7 for 28 from 3-point range (he was suspended for the loss at Virginia Tech).

So, yeah, it matters. And it feels odd to say that Grayson Allen matters to Duke’s success because OF COURSE Grayson Allen matters for Duke’s success. He was, for most publications, the preseason national Player of the Year. But this year has mostly been one debacle after another for Allen, with the tripping incidents and the painful toe injury early in the season that kept him from practicing with the team for a couple weeks.

At some point, it became fair to wonder whether we’d ever see the Grayson Allen who was deemed worthy of all those preseason awards, and it was fair to begin to wonder what Duke’s ceiling might really be without an All-America-caliber Grayson Allen.

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Guess we can put those discussions aside.

Beating North Carolina doesn’t mean everything is perfect. The eighth-ranked Tar Heels (21-5, 9-3) are an outstanding team, a group very capable of getting back to the Final Four again this season. For Duke, beating UNC just means it has started to figure out what it can be, now that it has the Grayson Allen it expected all season. The next chapter has yet to be written.

“I think it’s big for our confidence, and we get a chance to show some maturity with the quick turnaround, a 1 o’clock game on Saturday that’s going to come really quick,” Allen said. “It’s all about how we respond after this.”

Allen and his teammates have had plenty of experience this season responding to ups and downs, so they should definitely be ready to play Clemson on Saturday at Cameron Indoor.