Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated who Duke said was injured during the court storm. Duke said it was a person in the basketball program, not a player.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — That’s why it’s the best damn rivalry in college sports, folks.
Despite No. 4 Duke leading for the first 39 minutes of Saturday’s rivalry tilt at No. 14 North Carolina, despite the Tar Heels almost singularly relying on star freshman Caleb Wilson for any offensive juice, despite the Blue Devils’ having lost only one game all season, history is never off the table when these two teams meet.
Especially when there’s 10.6 seconds left, all tied at 68.
On Saturday, it was the Tar Heels who met the moment — specifically, senior guard Seth Trimble, whose game-winning 3 with 0.4 seconds left sealed UNC’s 71-68 comeback and stamped him in Tobacco Road lore forever.
“He’s deserving of being remembered forever,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said of Trimble. “That shot was made by the perfect person at the right time.”
SETH TRIMBLE WINS IT FOR NORTH CAROLINA 😱
OUR SPORT>>>> pic.twitter.com/oSMZvxphLj
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 8, 2026
It was UNC’s first game-winning shot with less than a second left since Luke Maye’s epic Elite Eight dagger against Kentucky in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The roaring Tar Heels crowd stormed the court after Trimble’s apparent buzzer-beater, then was removed so the clock could rewind for the last .4 seconds — only to do it all over again moments later, swallowing Trimble and his teammates in a sea of Carolina blue.
Duke said a person in the program was injured in the court-storming chaos, but did not provide a name for privacy reasons.
“It’s hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players,” Scheyer said. “I’ve got staff members that got punched in the face. My family, pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. That’s not what this game is about.”
Saturday is also UNC’s closest margin of victory against Duke since another classic in this rivalry’s history: the 2005 regular-season finale, in which Marvin Williams’ three-point play with 17 seconds left sealed another Tar Heels comeback, 75-72, over then top-10 Duke.
“I don’t really know how else to say it,” Trimble said, smiling, “but you gotta have some big balls to shoot a shot like that, and knock down a shot like that.”
In what was billed as a battle of top-five freshmen, instead it was North Carolina’s longest-tenured player — Hubert Davis’ lone four-year player, and the only Tar Heel who had played in the rivalry before Saturday — who made the difference when it mattered most.
Trimble finished with 16 points and two rebounds — including the last one of the game off a missed Cam Boozer layup — in his final home game against the Tar Heels’ biggest rival.
“I’m going to remember this,” Trimble said, “for the rest of my life.”
Before Trimble’s heroics, the highlight of the game was the much-anticipated battle between Boozer and Wilson, the pair of future-lottery-pick freshmen. Those two more than delivered, with the future All-Americans combining for 47 points and 15 rebounds — 23 and four for Wilson, 24 and 11 for Boozer — and largely dominating the game.
That is, until the very last second.
“We had a breakdown on the switch, and we just collapsed,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, “and you’ve got to give Trimble credit, to knock that down.”
For Scheyer and Duke, what will sting as much as anything is how in-control the Blue Devils were for the entire game.
Duke burst out of the gates for an 18-5 lead in the opening minutes, threatening to run away with it. Much of that lopsidedness stemmed from the gulf in physicality between the rivals’ defenses. With their strength and length down low, the Blue Devils forced UNC into a dismal 2-for-9 shooting start. UNC, on the other hand, practically escorted Duke’s cutters and drivers to the rim — especially Isaiah Evans and Dame Sarr, who combined for 19 first-half points — while allowing Scheyer’s squad to start 6 for 7 on layups. Paint dominance, established.
But with UNC teetering at the under-12 media timeout, it was Wilson — North Carolina’s 19-year-old leading scorer and emotional weathervane — who took over. After barking in the Tar Heels’ huddle, Wilson proceeded to score on four out of five consecutive possessions, eviscerating Duke with his baseline jumper and drop step. That scoring surge made it 22-20, at which point the sellout crowd roared back to life.
“He basically put us on his back in the first half,” Davis said of Wilson.
North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson (8) blocks a shot by Duke’s Cameron Boozer (12) during the second half at Dean E. Smith Center. (Grant Halverson / Getty Images)
But Duke — as it had in high-profile wins over Kansas, Arkansas and Michigan State — responded with an 8-0 run of its own to regain a double-digit lead. By halftime, the lead stood at 12, with Duke ahead 41-29 despite “only” nine first-half points from Boozer, the current Wooden Award front-runner.
At halftime, as he had during his in-game huddles, Davis let his players own the messaging. But having won some wild ones over Duke in his tenure as head coach — none more notable than Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor, or these teams’ only NCAA Tournament meeting, in the 2022 Final Four — Davis reminded his team that they had enough time to write a new ending.
“We talked about the mistakes that we were making, that we can fix those mistakes and we have the ability to make changes,” Davis said. “That’s a good thing.”
Wilson’s carrying of North Carolina continued early in the second half, as he scored UNC’s first two baskets after intermission in flashy fashion: a turnaround, contested jumper over Boozer and an up-and-under layup in transition. But after a deferential first half, Boozer put this thumb on the game’s scale in overwhelming fashion. Racking up Duke’s next 11 points by himself, the 6-foot-9 wrecking ball kept the Tar Heels at bay, preventing them from seriously cutting into the deficit.
It wasn’t until the final six minutes, with time running out, that Davis’ team mounted its final charge. By fouling out Duke center Patrick Ngongba with 6:18 left and getting fellow Blue Devil center Maliq Brown into more foul trouble, UNC finally faced less interior resistance and started feeding Henri Veesaar inside. All 13 of the 7-footer’s points came in the second half, as he finally looked like the interior complement he’s been to Wilson all season.
What finally swung the game, though, were back-to-back 3s by the Tar Heels — the first by freshman Derek Dixon, the second by Veesaar — that brought UNC from six down to level with 1:40 left.
Duke, as it has so often under Scheyer, went to its best player down the stretch, with the Blue Devils drawing up back-to-back downhill rolls for Boozer. But the contender to go No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft failed to convert either, leaving the door open just a crack for UNC.
And that proved to be all Trimble and the Tar Heels needed.