North Carolina HC Hubert Davis Sounds Off on Effort After Loss to Duke

No. 17 North Carolina struggled with the basics on Saturday night, and that cost them the game in a 76-61 loss to No. 1 Duke in front of 9,314 fans at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

UNC shot 45 percent from the field to Duke's 42 percent. The Tar Heels made 38 percent of their three-point attempts to the Blue Devils' 31 percent. 

While those numbers were in North Carolina's favor, the team lost the turnover battle 14-8 and was outrebounded 42-29. Duke recorded 18 offensive rebounds.

During his postgame news conference, UNC head coach Hubert Davis noted that effort was the cause of Duke going on a 30-6 run. 

"At the beginning of the game I was clear and definitive on things that we had to do better compared to the first time we played them," Davis said, via USA Today. "One of them, number one on the list, was rebounding. We gave up 18 offensive rebounds.

"That's just not sustainable. We also needed to do a better job taking care of the basketball. Our 14 turnovers turned into 24 points for them. We were outscored by 20 in terms of points off turnovers."

The Tar Heels were without star freshman Caleb Wilson, lost for the season due to a broken right thumb he suffered at practice on Thursday. He led the team in rebounds per game (9.4).

Davis knows UNC must get better at rebounding if they want to go far in the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

"Going back to the 18 offensive rebounds, I felt like on 50/50 loose balls they got most of them," Davis said. "In order to win games against teams like this, you have to win that area. We didn't win it tonight."

Jarin Stevenson and Henri Veesaar were tied for the most rebounds for UNC with nine each. The rest of the team had a combined 11 rebounds.

Duke star freshman Cameron Boozer had the game-high 15 rebounds.

North Carolina has a few days to work out how to be better in the paint and to fight for rebounds. The Tar Heels next play in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday.