Duke didn’t have quite as easy a time with arch-rival North Carolina as in the teams’ previous meeting three weeks ago, but the Blue Devils were good enough to get the job done.
Tricia Liston came off the bench for 15 points to lead four Blue Devils in double figures in a 69-63 win over the Tar Heels on Senior Day at Carmichael Arena.
Elizabeth Williams added 13 points with nine rebounds for Duke (24-4, 15-1), which won in Chapel Hill for the first time in four seasons under coach Joanne P. McCallie.
Chelsea Gray added 12 points, seven assists and seven steals, setting the Duke single-season assists record with 153. Allison Vernerey came off the bench for 10 points.
“I didn’t think we could get more adversity, but we did and I think the team handled the game very, very well,” McCallie said. “I’m disappointed with 22 turnovers. We need to take a look at that. … Any time a team shoots 52 percent from the floor, that’s a sign of excellent ball movement and great, savvy play by the guards. Particularly by Chelsea in terms of her decisions and what’s she’s trying to do with her team on the floor.”
Senior center Chay Shegog led UNC (19-10, 9-7), which had lost to the Blue Devils 96-56 on Feb. 6 in Durham, with a game-high 22 points. Freshman Brittany Rountree came off the bench to score 17.
“If we had played the first half like we did the second half we’d be a lot happier right now,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. “But I thought in the second half we competed a lot harder. We played transition defense and we played like we were supposed to play. Duke’s a very good game. They’re very skilled with a lot of great players out there.”
Duke won despite a serious fat lip to sophomore forward Haley Peters, who took an inadvertent elbow to the mouth from Shegog with 1:18 left in the first half with the injury requiring “16 or 17” stitches. Peters, who finished with nine points, returned with 10:49 to play.
“(Peters) is our warrior,” Gray said. “She’s the backbone of this team, and when we saw her come back into the game I turned to her and said ‘Welcome back.’ It was just good to have her back on the floor.”
Shegog and Peters later exchanged smiles and a warm hug in the post-game handshake line.
Duke’s biggest lead was 57-40 on a Williams layup with 13:21 to go but the Tar Heels kept coming, slicing the advantage to 67-63 on a pair of Krista Gross free throws with 1:16 to go.
“Three weeks ago, we knew we didn’t play how we could have played (against Duke),” Shegog said. “We spent time, we analyzed their team, and this time we had a really solid game plan to try to beat them.”
Duke shot 51.9 percent to 37.9 for the Tar Heels, won the rebound battle 36-31 and committed 22 turnovers to 23 for UNC.
The teams’ next games are in the ACC Tournament. No. 5 seed UNC will take on No. 12 seed Clemson in the opening game on Thursday at 11 a.m., while top-seeded Duke will take on the N.C. State-Florida State winner on Friday at 3.
Comments