Freshman Sensation Austin Rivers Leads Duke Past North Carolina [VIDEO]

Austin Rivers penciled his name into the history books of one of the most storied rivalries in all of sports Wednesday night, hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Duke the dramatic victory. That rivalry, dating back to 1920, played its 233rd game Wednesday night and lived up to every ounce of hype. A back and forth game throughout, North Carolina was the first to gain control in the later portion of the second half, jumping out to a 13 point lead. The Tar Heels even lead by ten with less than three minutes to play. That lead dwindled though, as Duke showed resilience and strung together several turnovers and clutch shots. The most clutch of all, came when Austin Rivers hit a cold blooded 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Blue Devils the 85-84 victory in the Dean Dome.

Rivers set a school record for most points ever scored by a Freshman against North Carolina with 29. He added 5 rebounds and 2 assists as well. Coach Mike Kryszewski improved to 37-36 all time against the Tar Heels.

Rivers said in a postgame interview “Obviously this is my favorite win I’ve ever had in my entire life and it’s because we were down the whole game. The whole game, we were down. They just kept it on us — 10-point lead, 10-point lead. And then there was 3 minutes left and probably everybody thought we were going to lose, and we just kept fighting. To get a W, it’s amazing.”

Sources: ESPN, YouTube