The women's basketball team has plenty to play for on Saturday.
The 19th-ranked Blue Devils (19-6, 10-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) can fulfill their season-long goal of 20 victories with a win. They have a chance to rebound from their 88-82 overtime loss to Clemson on Monday night and to build momentum for the postseason.
And Duke will have a rare opportunity to sweep theseason series over rival North Carolina. The Blue Devils play the 12th-ranked Tar Heels (24-4, 11-4) at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Carmichael Auditorium. The game will be televised locally on WTVD.
"I think it's another great opportunity for us," said Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors after Monday night's game. "We want to redeem ourselves. We're going to regroup and get back to basics. It's a tough way to go out--playing at Carolina. But I think we're up for the challenge."
And this game should definitely be a challenge for Duke. The Blue Devils handed UNC its first loss of the season on Jan. 25, when junior center Alison Day hit a buzzer-beating 10-foot shot to secure the 74-72 win. The Tar Heels will be out for revenge on their home court on Saturday.
Since that victory over North Carolina, the Blue Devils have gone 4-4. They have played well at times, but have been plagued by streaks of mistake-ridden play during games.
"We definitely need to improve our play," senior co-captain Carey Kauff-man said. "We've had periodic breakdowns on defense. We want to put together 40 minutes of good basketball."
Kauffman, who normally is one of Duke's best players on both ends of the court, sat on the bench for much of the second half on Monday. She thinks that her poor defensive play was the reason that she was not on the court in the final minutes of that loss.
"That was probably the worst night of my life," Kauffman said. "I would have been in the game if I was playing well. I feel primarily that I let the team down. That is one of the worst things I can do.
"I'm going to take all of my anger out on Carolina on Saturday."
Besides giving Duke its goal of a 20-win season, a victory over the Tar Heels would improve the Blue Devils seeding in the ACC tournament next weekend. Duke is just one game behind UNC in the race for second in the conference, and N.C. State and Clemson are both still in the picture.
"All of our goals hinge on this game," Day said. "But we have to put that in the back of our minds."
In the teams' earlier meeting, Tar Heel sophomore point guard Marion Jones lit up Duke for 28 points. The Blue Devils practiced against quicker male players on Wednesday to help prepare for the speedy Jones.
But the Blue Devils are also aware that they need to focus their defensive attention on senior forward Charlotte Smith, who is UNC's leading scorer at 18.9 points per game.
"Marion Jones is a great athlete and is one of the factors that hurt us in the last game," Kauffman said. "But we feel that we are playing much better defense than when they came here."
Last year, after playing Carolina close at home, Duke committed several turnovers in the early minutes of its game in Chapel Hill and ended up losing, 70-58. The Blue Devils think that they can avoid a similar situation on Saturday.
"I think we are just as confident [as before the Jan. 25 win over UNC], or even more so," Day said. "We know that Carolina is very beatable."
In fact, the Tar Heels have lost three more games since they visited Cameron--including a double-overtime contest against N.C. State last week. And some of UNC's players have been unhappy about their playing time recently. Senior Gwendolyn Gillingham and freshman Tracy Reid, both of whom started the Duke game, have seen their minutes dwindle lately.
"I think we're catching them at a good time," Kauffman said.
The Tar Heels will probably look to contain Duke's inside game on Saturday. Day and Kauffman combined for 35 points in the Jan. 25 contest.
"A lot of teams have really been packing it in lately," Day said. "I don't really think that to really stop us, you can just focus on our post game. We have been shooting the ball well from the perimeter."
The Blue Devils had one of their best practices of the season on Wednesday, Kauffman said. And they know that the Carolina game is their last chance to finally nail down their goals for the season.
"We need to focus on still getting our 20 wins," Goestenkors said. "Those goals are still right there for us. Now we just have to dig a little deeper to get there."
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