College Basketball Betting: North Carolina vs. Duke Odds, Preview and Analysis

The 17th-ranked Duke Blue Devils (22-8) will look to prevent the eighth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels (24-6) from earning at least a tie of the ACC regular-season title Saturday as consensus one-point home underdogs at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

The defending national champion Blue Devils have beaten the rival Tar Heels 11 times in the past 14 meetings following a 74-73 upset victory as 8.5-point road dogs at Chapel Hill on February 17. The Miami Hurricanes currently share the ACC lead at 13-4 and visit the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday with a shot at winning the conference.

Duke is 8-6 against the spread in the last 14 games versus North Carolina and carries a four-game series winning streak into the regular-season finale, according to the OddsShark College Basketball Database.

Junior guard Matt Jones (11.2 points per game) suffered a sprained ankle in the first half of the most recent meeting for the Blue Devils, who were able to overcome his loss thanks to a team-high 23 points from sophomore Grayson Allen.

Since earning that win over the Tar Heels, Allen has averaged 24.8 points as Duke has split its last four games straight-up with a 1-2-1 mark ATS. Allen has played 36 minutes or more in 10 consecutive games.

North Carolina has won three of four since that defeat but has failed to cover the spread in its last two, including a 75-70 victory against the Syracuse Orange on Monday.

The Tar Heels closed as 12.5-point home favorites versus the Orange, who made a late charge to pull within 69-68 with 2:24 left after trailing by double digits midway through the second half.

Senior forward Brice Johnson had a team-high 14 points for North Carolina while four of his teammates scored 10 or more off the bench. Fellow senior Marcus Paige struggled with his shooting, making only 2-of-10 attempts for six points.

The last meeting between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels finished well under the closing total of 163.5 to snap a three-game over streak in the series. The under has also cashed in seven straight games for Duke overall along with 10-of-13 for North Carolina.

However, the past two meetings in Durham have both gone over, averaging 178 points heading into Saturday afternoon's key matchup.