CHAPEL HILL - The No. 22 women's basketball team entered Carmichael Auditorium Friday night hoping to avenge the 87-73 loss archrival UNC handed it at home Jan. 18.
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, however, forward Tracy Reid and guard Marion Jones combined for 48 of Carolina's eventual 81 points to furnish No. 4 UNC (24-2, 15-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) the regular season conference title and punish Duke (17-9, 9-7 in the ACC) with its third straight loss, 81-61.
Duke-after having dropped its last home game of the season to No. 11 Virginia last Wednesday, 86-56-hoped to seal a third-place finish in the ACC with a UNC defeat. Instead, the Blue Devils could head into the tournament in fifth place.
"Three games in six days against the top three teams in the conference is not a great way to end your season," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "It's good in that it makes you mentally and physically tough, but when you're beaten down the way we have been in these last games, then it can actually work in reverse."
Although UNC jumped to an early lead on a Chanel Wright three-pointer, the Reid-Jones duo came off the bench to exhibit the Tar Heels' true offensive effort, which culminated in a 17-2 run at the beginning of the second half that put the game out of the Blue Devils' reach.
"After that [N.C.] State game, I was wishing we could play Duke the next day," Reid said about her team's one and only conference loss, which took place last Monday. "I was so ready to get that loss out of my mind. I think that loss hurt us so bad. We knew we couldn't dwell on that long. I was just waiting to get a win so bad, and we knew what we had to do."
Reid-who grabbed 12 rebounds and tallied 31 points on 14-of-17 shooting for her 14th double-double performance of the season-scored her first basket at the 14:38 mark and then proceeded to score UNC's next 11 points during approximately six minutes of play. Reid, who leads the ACC in scoring with 22.1 points per game, showcased a variety of offensive moves in the post. Carolina's go-to player lit up Duke with floating layins, aggressive jumpers and old-fashioned three-point plays, while most of the time having multiple Blue Devils in her face.
"We could not stop Tracy Reid," Goestenkors said. "We had just about everybody on our team on her. She was awesome."
Despite struggling in the post-center Tye Hall and forward Payton Black pulled down only four boards each and scored a collective 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting-Duke did not give up. Although they trailed by as many as nine in the early minutes of the first stanza, the Blue Devils fought their way back with the senior leadership of forward Windsor Coggeshall, who hit three jumpers during a key three-minute stretch to give Duke the lead, 23-22, for the first time with 9:49 remaining.
During the next three minutes of play, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils exchanged leads eight times before Carolina embarked upon a 10-2 run at the 6:46 mark to put Duke down 41-32 with 2:20 remaining.
The Blue Devils did not, in fact, find the net for an entire four-minute stretch during the Tar Heel run and were only redeemed when Black ducked her way out of a double team and hit a fadeaway jumper in the paint at the 3:08 mark. From there, the two teams swapped baskets until UNC ended the half's scoring with a Jessica Gaspar three-pointer from way downtown to give the Tar Heels a 10-point advantage, 46-36.
With an ACC season-high crowd of 8,241 in attendance, the Tar Heels emerged from the locker room with an intensity that Goestenkors said she believed to be unparalleled thus far this season.
"Our goal tonight was to play with a lot of intensity, and I thought overall we did that," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "I thought that we played with much more intensity than Monday night against State."
Indeed, after Hall netted a lay-in at the 19:07 mark, the tenacious Tar Heel defense prevented the Blue Devils from scoring for a full six minutes, until Hall again found the twine with 13:07 left in the half.
During that six-minute interim, Reid scorched Duke, accounting for nine of Carolina's 15 points, and led UNC in its 17-2 run.
Realizing that the bigger and more athletic Carolina squad was destined to dominate the post, Duke's backcourt stepped up during the final minutes of the matchup and attempted-albeit unsuccessfullly-to rally from behind.
At the 12:35 mark, guard Kira Orr, who finished with a team-high 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting, drove the right baseline and scored Duke's third basket of the half, reducing UNC's lead to 65-42. Orr, a 5-foot-6 senior, also led the team in rebounding, grabbing eight of Duke's 28, compared to UNC's 40.
Except for putbacks by Hall during the eighth minute and freshman forward Peppi Browne during the fourth minute, Orr and sophomore guard Hilary Howard accounted for all of Duke's 21 points during the last 13 minutes of play.
In the end, however, Carolina's ability to capitalize on the fast break and execute excellent transition plays won the game and sent Duke home with a 20-point loss.
"I think that everyone's really tired right now," Orr said. "I think the one thing we can't do is really put our heads down and give up because there's still a lot of basketball to be played as far as we're concerned."
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