Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said a member of the coaching staff sustained injuries trying to get back to the locker room after North Carolina fans stormed the court following Saturday’s game.
Scheyer told reporters on Monday that a Blue Devils staffer had a bloody lip and “looked like he’d been in a brawl.”
Despite the injuries, Scheyer did say the person is “doing better now.”
Immediately after the game on Saturday, Scheyer told reporters that multiple people on his staff were “punched in the face” as Tar Heels fans were storming the court at Dean Smith Center:
“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. Like 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 and that’s not what this game is about. And you give them all the credit in the world, it’s not about the game. But obviously that was a scary ending and this rivalry is not about that.”
UNC fans actually stormed the court twice during the 71-68 win. The first occurred when Seth Trimble made a go-ahead three and the game clock read 0.0, but officials put 0.4 seconds back on the clock.
Play was briefly halted to clear the court, then fans ran onto the court again once the game officially ended. The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 for violating the league’s event security policy.
Lost amid the end-of-game chaos was the Tar Heels completing a thrilling comeback against their longtime rivals. They outscored Duke 42-27 in the second half to hand the Blue Devils their first ACC loss of the season.
The two teams will play again in the regular-season finale on March 7 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.