No. 1 Recruit Dereck Lively II Hyped by Duke Twitter After Big Performance in UNC Win

The Duke Blue Devils defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 63-57 in the Battle of the Blues on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, to improve to 17-6 on the season.

Junior guard Jeremy Roach was the star of the show offensively for the Blue Devils, finishing with 20 points, seven rebounds and one steal. He made eight of 20 shots from the floor and one of two shots from deep.

Freshman Kyle Filipowski was also impressive in the win, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds and one steal.

However, it was freshman Dereck Lively II who made the biggest impact in Saturday's game. Despite only scoring four points, Lively finished with an incredible 14 rebounds, two assists and eight blocks in the win.

Saturday's game was arguably Lively's best of the season, and Duke Twitter couldn't get enough of the former top recruit, praising his incredible performance:

Lively was a 5-star prospect and the top-ranked center in the 2022 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings. He was also ranked No. 3 in the nation behind Arkansas' Nick Smith and Duke's Dariq Whitehead.

The 18-year-old entered Saturday's game averaging 4.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 20 games while shooting 57.6 percent from the floor. Hopefully his performance against North Carolina is only the beginning of a significant rest of the season.

Lively committed to Duke in September 2021 after also receiving offers from LSU, Florida State, North Carolina, Michigan and Kentucky, among others.