No. 4 North Carolina Edges No. 6 Duke in Thriller

Sunday, March 29

Chapel Hill, N.C.

1:00 PM

Duke University

North Carolina

No. 4 North Carolina Edges No. 6 Duke in Thriller

3/29/2015 4:45:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Fourth-ranked North Carolina scored three goals in a span of 2:17 in the fourth quarter and held off a final charge by sixth-ranked Duke to earn a 15-14 men's lacrosse victory in front of 5,711 fans at Fetzer Field Sunday afternoon. The crowd was the largest at Fetzer since the Tar Heels hosted Johns Hopkins in 1983.

Deemer Class led all Duke (7-3, 0-2 ACC) goal scorers with five tallies, while freshman Justin Guterding finished with a game-high six points on three goals and three assists. Redshirt freshman Danny Fowler earned his first career start in the cage and made 13 saves.

“I was really proud of our guys,” said head coach John Danowski. “It was a great week of preparation. I think our guys were on task. We were delighted with our effort and I think we got better this week. Some weeks you win, some weeks you lose, but we got better as a result of this.”

Joey Sankey and Jimmy Bitter led the North Carolina (10-1, 1-0 ACC) with three goals and two assists apiece, while Chad Tutton had four tallies. The Tar Heels won 15-of-19 faceoffs in the second half and 22-of-33 for the game.

“We knew we needed to slide to them [Sankey and Bitter] and I thought a couple of times we did not,” Danowski said. “But they're great players. They're seniors and terrific players. If you take a look at their seniors, I think scored 10 out of their 15 goals and that's what seniors do.”

The rivalry game featured six ties and four lead changes with four of those ties coming in the second half. Duke's largest lead of the game was four, 7-3, in the second quarter, while North Carolina's 15-12 advantage in the closing minutes was the Tar Heels' biggest margin.

Trailing 2-1 after the first quarter, Duke's offense caught fire with six tallies in the second to go up by as many as four, 7-3, before the Tar Heels netted a pair to close the gap to two at the half. Guterding had two goals and an assist overall in the 6-1 run.

Duke's defense was equally as impressive, holding the Tar Heels scoreless for 13:51 en route to the four-goal advantage. Shane Simpson and Walker Chafee closed out the scoring for North Carolina in the first half, cutting Duke's lead to 7-5 heading into the locker room.

The shoe was on the other foot in the third quarter as North Carolina scored the first three goals of the third quarter to regain the lead, 8-7, with 10:58 to play in the third quarter. Junior Myles Jones got on the board for the Blue Devils to tie the game 8-8, but the Tar Heels answered with consecutive scores to take the 10-8 lead.

The Blue Devils answered with three straight of their own in the final 3:29 to go ahead 11-10 after three quarters and set up the thrilling final 15 minutes.

Trailing one, 12-11, after North Carolina scored twice in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, Duke evened the score with a Jones tally with 10:16 to go. UNC's success at the X proved to be the difference down the stretch as it was able to score three crucial goals in 2:17 for its largest lead of the game, 15-12. Tutton had two in the spurt for the home squad.

Class made it a one-goal game again for Duke with 2:41 to play, but the Blue Devils weren't able to convert down the stretch and North Carolina was able to run out the final 54 seconds of the game.

North Carolina led the game 44-42 in shots and won the ground ball battle 49-43. Duke senior Jack Rowe was 10-of-28 at the X with seven ground balls. Brian Dailey helped anchor the defense with six ground balls and one caused turnover.

Kieran Burke finished with 10 saves in goal for the Tar Heels and Stephen Kelly was 22-of-33 at the faceoff X.

Duke returns home for the first time since March 7 next Saturday, April 4 to host Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish will be ranked No. 1 after its overtime win over No. 1 Syracuse. Faceoff is set for 5 p.m., on ESPNU.

Notes

The win was the first for North Carolina against Duke on Fetzer Field since a 14-9 victory March 19, 2003 … The one-goal game was the 12th between Duke and UNC with North Carolina leading 7-5 … John Danowski is now 14-3 against North Carolina in his Duke coaching career … Myles Jones pushed his point streak to 27 games with two goals and an assist … Deemer Class moves into a tie for 35th on Duke's all-time scoring list with 73 goals, 45 assists and 118 points.

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