CHAPEL HILL--Freshman Hilary Howard scored just four points in Wednesday night's game against North Carolina. When the final buzzer sounded, however, Howard's last two points were etched in the memory of nearly everyone in the crowd of 3,216 at Carmichael Auditorium.
Howard took the women's basketball team's game against North Carolina into her own hands as she drove the length of the court when the Blue Devils were down by one, 85-84, with 10.3 seconds left in the contest. The freshman nailed a clutch 10-foot jumper to give Duke a 86-85 victory, leaving just 1.6 seconds for the Tar Heels to make a desperation shot to win the game. Tar Heel Lori Gear could not come through with a long three-point attempt for the win.
"I just want to say that that was a tremendous game," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Everybody who had the opportunity to watch it I think would agree. I thought Carolina played a tremendous game."
The Blue Devils (16-3, 5-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) battled a gritty North Carolina team in typical Duke-Carolina fashion--a tight game full of lead changes and close calls. Even though the Blue Devils held an eight-point lead with just over five minutes remaining in the second stanza, UNC (10-6, 5-2 in the ACC) stormed back to turn the game into a contest of which team made its last shot. And it took until the clock ran out before anyone in the crowd could be sure which team would come out on top.
UNC's Sheneika Walker brought her team within two points of the Blue Devils with 42 seconds remaining, and Duke had an opportunity to put away the game. An errant pass gave the ball back to the Tar Heels, and North Carolina's star of the night, Tracy Sadler, added three of her game-high 29 on a layup and a foul shot with 10 seconds remaining.
Howard had the last word for the Blue Devils, even though most of the crowd--and even the Tar Heel coaching staff--expected junior guard Kira Orr to take the ball down the court for the last shot.
"I knew they would expect us to send Kira toward the ball, which we always do," Goestenkors said. "So I told Kira to fake up and go long. If she had it, we were going to throw it long to her for a layup. If she didn't have the long pass, then [Jennifer Scanlon] and Hilary were going to go long and then cut back to the ball--which is what happened."
Howard didn't even get a chance to execute the rest of the planned play, because senior center Alison Day could not advance down the court fast enough to set up a screen for Howard. So the freshman just made sure that she launched the ball in time for an offensive rebound and putback, if she missed.
"I came back to the ball and I knew the best shot we were going to get was in transition," Howard said. "I just tried to push the ball up and Tye [Hall] set a screen for me which allowed me to get some room, and I just wanted to take the first available shot so there would be enough time to get a rebound."
Thankfully, the shot swished through the net, and the Blue Devils could finally celebrate as Gear's three-point attempt sailed off-target.
For Goestenkors, the win marked her first win in Carmichael Auditorium and only the second win for Duke in Chapel Hill in 18 games.
"It feels pretty good to [win here]," Goestenkors said. "This one feels pretty nice."
To open the contest, the Blue Devils appeared to be out of sync, and the Tar Heels jumped out to an early 8-2 lead before Goestenkors called a 20-second timeout to settle down her players. UNC led for 12 minutes before Duke charged back to knot the score at 22 with 7:52 remaining in the first half. Throughout the half, though, neither team could manage a lead of more than six points.
The two teams took turns engineering runs in the second half, as Duke attempted to break away on a 15-4 tear, which left it with a six-point lead with six minutes remaining. Tar Heel head coach Sylvia Hatchell called a timeout at the end of the run, and her team soon took off on a 13-6 run of its own.
"[During the timeout], I just told them that the game wasn't over and we have to play some defense on them," Hatchell said. "What we tried to do was come down and run a few set plays to get some good shots to get in there. We just had to tighten up and play better defense. They were just doing whatever they wanted to."
For the Blue Devils, it seemed as if Sadler did everything she wanted to do, scoring 21 of her 29 in the first half. The Tar Heel junior shot 7-for-9 from the floor, including 4-for-5 from beyond the three-point arc.
"Coming into the game, we didn't think of [Sadler] as a shooter," Orr said. "Then she comes out and hits those threes--with a hand in her face or wide open, she was hitting everything she put up."
Scanlon paced the Blue Devils, pouring in 23 points. She made several drives to the basket, keeping Duke in the game during the early minutes.
"I thought our group had a total team effort," Goestenkors said. "I thought Kira Orr did a good job running the point. I thought Jen Scanlon started penetrating on them when we were standing around early on in the game. When Jen started penetrating, I thought that really loosened up things for us a little bit."
The ending reminded several of the players and coaches of the Duke-UNC game in Cameron on Jan. 25, 1995, when Day made a last-second shot to give the Blue Devils a 74-72 victory over the Tar Heels. North Carolina downed Duke in the teams' second and third meetings of '95, once in Carmichael and a blowout win in the ACC championship game.
"It's always emotional when you play North Carolina," Scanlon said. "With this history of the different games last year, it made it even more [emotional]."
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