As the tents begin to sink in K-Ville under the snowfall, the heat of the long standing Duke-North Carolina rivalry threatens to boil over. Monday, the women's basketball team will take on the No. 8 Tar Heels (14-1, 4-0 in the ACC) looking to advance their undefeated season to 17-0 and 5-0 in conference play.
But are the Blue Devil's late escapes bound to catch up with them?
Duke has trailed during the first minutes of the second half the past four games, pulling away wins led by Alana Beard, who finished with 29 points against Wake Forest last night.
"I think I was feeling the frustration of our entire team," head coach Gail Goestenkors said of last night's contest. "We didn't seem to be in synch with one another."
The Blue Devils will certainly need to find their rhythm for Monday night's matchup. North Carolina is off to their best start since the 1998 season.
Senior guard Coretta Brown leads the team in scoring with 15.5 points per game. Brown also has strong support from three-time ACC rookie of the week La'Tangela Atkinson who has been averaging 11 points and 7 rebounds per game.
As Duke struggled to finish off the Demon Deacons last night, the Tar Heels were busy demolishing Clemson, dealing them a 77-55 loss.
North Carolina was carried by another talented Tar Heel, Candace Sutton, who finished with 15 points. While her statistics may lack a certain Alana-esque ridiculousness, she is part of a more balanced offensive unit that has been able to put 70-plus points on the scoreboard against good teams.
Additionally, North Carolina holds a much more impressive record than Wake Forest-not to mention more talent-and the Duke offense will need to step up in order to pull away this time.
The Blue Devils will have to lean on its other junior stars if it wants to remain undefeated. Junior guard Vicki Krapohl has a 47.9 three-point field goal percentage and Iciss Tillis finished the Wake Forest game with her fifth double-double of the season.
Still, Tillis put up 13 points, only trailing Beard who racked up 16. Tillis' increasingly conspicuous presence on the court, however, does hint at some sort of reviving of Duke's offensive prowess.
"I have really been focusing on my rebounding," Tillis said. "Sometimes when you concentrate on one aspect of your game, some other aspects might tend to go down. I'm not really worried about my scoring. It will come naturally."
"I think offensively we're sort of out of whack," Beard said. "We're out there on the court sometimes, and it's like we've never played together. I think we just need to settle things down and take it one play at a time."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.