For a half, it appeared as if North Carolina would prove to be a serious obstacle in Duke's attempt to finish out a perfect 16-0 ACC regular season record.
During the opening 20 minutes, the Tar Heels attacked the Blue Devils with vigorous intensity, as they opened up a nine-point lead in front of an energized crowd at Carmichael Auditorium on Senior Day. Although UNC trailed by three at the break, the Tar Heels nonetheless looked fully capable of pushing the Blue Devils to the wire, and perhaps of even ending Duke's undefeated jaunt through the ACC.
Duke, however, proceeded to steamroll its archrivals as soon as play resumed. The Blue Devils began the half with an incredible 26-2 run, and what had been a three-point lead quickly morphed into an insurmountable 27-point advantage.
What on earth did Duke coach Gail Goestenkors say at halftime to motivate the troops? Did she evoke shades of Vince Lombardi? Hardly.
Instead, Goestenkors calmly identified the Blue Devils' three defensive shortcomings in the first half: offensive rebounding, too many fouls and too little attention to Nikki Teasley and Coretta Brown, who had gone off for 30 combined points.
"The only thing I said was they had 10 points of free throws, 10 points of offensive rebounds, that's 20 of their 42 points that we gave them," Goestenkors said.
With their problems identified,
"I think that was huge for us," Goestenkors said. "We were supposed to do those things in the first half--we were running the same exact plays except we weren't executing them. I think when we executed and got some real easy looks early in the second half, I think it gave our team confidence."
The Blue Devils spent the opening 10 minutes of the second half simply decimating their opponents. Their defensive corrections worked flawlessly. Teasley and Brown stopped scoring, and no one stepped up to fill the void.
UNC literally missed everything.
"It's tough do to anything when you miss 20 of your first 21 shots," Teasley said. "I think everybody was frustrated--the whole team, even the players that weren't in the game. It made us lackadaisical, we got complacent, and we just got out of flow."
Duke, in contrast, was thoroughly in the zone. The more North Carolina struggled, the faster the Blue Devils pushed the tempo. The contest soon evolved into a makeshift 3-2 fast break drill, for after each Tar Heel missed shot or turnover, Duke immediately looked up court.
"That's our game, running," Alana Beard said. "I don't know how many times it was said in the huddle, [but] it was fun."
During the 26-2 Duke
When that move did not pay off, Hatchell then instructed her squad to switch from man-to-man defense into a 3-2 zone. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, as most of the Blue Devil points came in transition, set defenses rarely had the opportunity to materialize.
"They were able to run because of our missed shots," Hatchell said. "In the first half, they didn't have but just a few transition buckets. We took some bad shots."
With 10:37 left in the contest, the Tar Heels finally woke up from their daze, and began the daunting task of trying to recover from a 27-point deficit. However, their efforts were completely in vain.
The Blue Devils spent the last 10 minutes sharing smiles, high fives and, in the final minutes, teeth-shattering hugs on the sidelines.
The most impassioned embrace came when Iciss Tillis left the game for the last time, joining Beard on the sidelines for a well-deserved rest, for the duo combined for 49 points. Seeing Tillis, Beard became absolutely euphoric and jumped into the power forward's arms.
"I was so hyped," Beard said. "It was just awesome.... I can't even begin to express it."
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