On a crucial play late in Duke’s 63-57 win over North Carolina, Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski combined with a brilliant little two-man action to get Roach to the bucket.

Coach Jon Scheyer drew up the perfect play, one Roach said after the game he knew would work.

Duke isolated Roach on the left wing. Filipowski came to set a screen, but bailed out of it and slipped to the corner. The two Carolina defenders, RJ Davis and Pete Nance, got lost in the action and Roach got a straight-line drive to the hoop.

Carolina didn’t rotate, with Armando Bacot hanging on his man under the basket after already being burned by a putback dunk from Dereck Lively II when he went to block a Roach drive just a minute earlier.

Roach laid it up and in to give Duke a 61-57 lead with 23 seconds remaining.

Roach said after the game he knew North Carolina wouldn’t communicate properly on the screen action.

“They weren’t talking all night,” he said.

The 6-foot-1 Blue Devil guard reached 20 points for the second consecutive game. He had 21 points in the win over Wake Forest. Though it took him 20 shots to get there, Roach was key for Duke late in the ball game.

We’ll see if he can make it 3 straight when Duke heads to Miami on Monday for a game against the Hurricanes.