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Duke Blue Devils staff members “got punched in the face” as North Carolina Tar Heels fans stormed the court in celebration of their rivalry win, head coach Jon Scheyer said Saturday.
No. 14 North Carolina topped No. 4 Duke, 71-68, after Tar Heels guard Seth Trimble hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left. Tar Heels fans hit the court thinking the game was over but had to be corralled back to their seats once officials added less than a second back to the clock.
Scheyer said some of the team’s staff members took hits during the fracas.
“For me it’s hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,” Scheyer said. “I don’t want to make it about that, because Carolina, they played a great game to win. And that’s a heartbreaking loss for our team.
“I 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.”
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said he apologized for the incident, but didn’t have details on any injuries.
“When they rushed the court, a number of people got knocked over,” Cunningham said. “But then we had to clear the court again. So when we normally have something like just rushing the court and the game is over, we do have a line by the benches to get people off safely.
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“Obviously, if somebody got injured, that’s just really, really disappointing. We’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but again, my apologies to Duke for that.”
A Duke official told multiple outlets that one person tied to the program had been injured but had no other details.
Scheyer and Duke had a similar incident happen after their lost to Wake Forest in 2022. Then-Blue Devils player Kyle Filipowski was shaken up after a Demon Deacon fan collided with him during their celebration.
Scheyer, who wondered in 2022 when court-storming was going to be banned, was asked whether he still believed it should be prohibited.
“Just shouldn’t have people getting punched in the face,” he said. “Shouldn’t put our players in position where they’re face-to-face with people who can do anything at that time. It just takes one reaction. Even today, I had to push people away just to try to protect our players.
“They won, they should celebrate. They want to court-storm, court-storm. But just let’s get our guys off safely, that’s it. That’s where I’m at with that.”
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Duke fell to 21-2 on the season with the loss. North Carolina improved to 19-4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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