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CHAPEL HILL -- The sun broke through the windows of the Dean Dome late Sunday afternoon, and long beams of light shone through. It was like something out of a time gone by.

North Carolina shook off the cobwebs of history again, defeating Duke 79-71 in the final game of the regular season in the final home game of Tyler Hansbrough. With a long, thin light-blue line of Tar Heels in attendance, Carolina wore down its archrival in the sweltering heat of March basketball.

Whistles blew and bodies fell hard on the polished planks. Coaches screamed and referees admonished and the band played on through the posturing and histrionics of a rivalry now 227 chapters told.

Carolina made the shots it had to, and Duke refused to take the shots when it needed to, and in the end UNC took the top spot for this week's ACC tournament in Atlanta.

With famous faces ringing the floor and a long afternoon of festivities planned, UNC held off its neighbor and cut down a net. Danny Green said the next net-cutting ceremony will be in Detroit, the site of the Final Four, and Roy Williams said he wouldn't be surprised to see Duke there, too.

"They're really good," he said only moments after Mike Krzyzewski had said about the same thing of Carolina.

"They're really, really good," Krzyzewski said.

And thus the regular season ended.

There was no blood this time, no unknown heroes, no roses thrown to the adoring fans or dramatic comebacks for the ages. There was just Duke and Carolina playing for a mythical regular-season title with a top seed and a banner at stake. As all great Duke-North Carolina games have done, this one simply leads to the next one.

The teams will head to Atlanta limping slightly, and there were questions about who might or might not play heading into the Sunday afternoon final, but in the end everyone who could play did so. Now we'll see if either coach is willing to push his team to a real ACC title. Ty Lawson played point guard for Carolina with an injured toe and Lance Thomas played forward for Duke with an injured ankle. Both benches included players lost along the way.

Both coaches admitted they only had a rough idea of how well prepared their teams are for postseason. Nothing we saw Sunday suggested there's anything seriously wrong with either team, which means likely showdowns loom as the rival programs head deeper into March.

"I would not be surprised to see them at any point down the line," Williams said in the rambling post game. "I guess now we're one, they're two, so if we play them at the tournament it would be in the finals, if I'm doing my correct math or whatever there, bracketology."

Wake's win Sunday evening upset Williams' math and actually dropped the Blue Devils to the third seed in Atlanta.

Duke continued its evolution with Jon Scheyer at point and a swirling offense around him. The 25-6 Blue Devils are better than they were a few weeks ago, and the most dangerous element of any NCAA tournament might be one with a developing Duke getting better.

UNC continued its trend toward interior play with four or five big men revolving in and out with the outside gunners looking to pass before firing.

The 27-3 Tar Heels are better than they were early in the year when people were questioning their fortitude after an 0-2 conference start, and nothing is more dangerous than Carolina in the national tournament with a grudge.

As is tradition, the tournament starts only after the Duke-Carolina series ends for the regular season.

As is tradition, the postseason projection for one includes the postseason projections for the other.

"There's an immense amount of respect," Krzyzewski said. "Not just now but over the decades. In some respect there's a kind of brotherhood there. I saw Michael (Jordan) before the game. We're unbelievably good friends. But that doesn't mean you don't want to beat them. There's a tremendous amount of respect because of the excellence that each program has."

Another chapter of a timeless rivalry was written Sunday afternoon, but time only stood still for two hours.

Hansbrough will never play here again, and Wake Forest is the second seed in the ACC Tournament, and now both Carolina and Duke have to start time again and limp to Atlanta with the sun rising on the only season anyone will remember a month from now.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com