The Duke Blue Devils have been one of the best teams in college basketball and they proved exactly why on Wednesday night, as they made a furious comeback to take down rival North Carolina at home.

Duke won its sixth straight game and was able to overcome a rough first half that saw North Carolina take a 33-29 lead into the locker room. The end of the game was close and the Blue Devils pulled through after backup guard Tyler Thornton came into the game to help with Mason Plumlee, who had to sit down due to foul trouble.

"I think the hero for us this game was Thornton," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He would not let us lose."

Thornton came up big for the Blue Devils, who have dealt with various injuries this season, including to Ryan Kelly. He hit three 3-pointers, including two during a key run in the second half, equaling the amount of points he has scored over the past three games. He helped change the game for the Blue Devils, who were able to take back the momentum.

"It's just the heart and the will to want to win," Thornton said. "Especially coming down the stretch, you've got to go all out and leave it on the floor, and I think we did that."

The team got off to a slow start but ended up shooting 52 percent after halftime and outscored UNC 44-35 in the second half. P.J. Hairston had a career high with 23 points scored while Reggie Bullock put in 15, including four 3-pointers for the Tar Heels, who fell to 6-5 in the ACC.

North Carolina looked stronger over the first 25 minutes, but allowed Duke back in and now has lost two in a tow and are just 1-4 against ranked opponents.

"If I knew how to fix the blessed thing, I would have fixed it," coach Roy Williams said of his team's struggles at the line. "The bottom line is, we didn't make free throws today. We're not a good free throw shooting team in games."

Seth Curry has 11 points for Duke and gave coach Mike Krzyzewski a juice birthday present as he turned 66. Krzyzewski put Plumlee on the bench late in the game, taking one of his best players off the court after he picked up his third foul early in the secon half.

"I thought he was playing like he had three fouls," Krzyzewski said. UNC's James Michael "McAdoo was just going at him so that McAdoo was either going to score, or Mason was going to foul him."

The move helped, as Duke was able to go on a 19-7 run to take the lead and then the team outscored the Tar Heels 11-3 over a stretch without Plumlee. Thornton was the biggest help for the Blue Devils and he rebounded from missing 12 of his past 14 three-point shots.

"They started knocking down shots in the second half, open 3-pointers," Bullock said. "I think our team played great, we played with better sense of urgency, we played with better effort, we were more involved in the game and what's happening. But they started knocking down shots and they started gaining momentum, and we wasn't connecting when we were open."

Duke is now 22-2 and has a big matchup against Maryland on Saturday on the road. The Terrapins are 17-7 and are 5-6 in the ACC.