After Duke's bitterly fought 78-67 overtime victory over North Carolina in January, many people expected an equally competitive contest Thursday night when the Tar Heels came to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Nationally, it was No. 2 vs. No. 6. Within the ACC, it was No. 1 vs. No. 2.
But this game was not close at all.
The second-ranked Blue Devils (25-1, 13-0 in the ACC) quickly turned the contest into a rout, building a 15-point halftime lead and then simply stomping disorganized North Carolina (23-2, 12-2) in the second half to win 97-63. Preseason first-team All-ACC members Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis paced a balanced offensive attack, scoring 31 points in the game's first 22 minutes, and Duke dominated every category on the final stat sheet.
The Blue Devils felt they made a strong statement with such a lopsided win over their fiercest rival.
"It shows that when we play great team basketball, offensively and defensively, that we can play with anybody and we beat anybody," said Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors. "I think we learned some tough lessons with Connecticut, but it certainly made us much better.
The convincing win was the latest in a string of Blue Devil blowouts since their nationally televised loss to current No. 1 UConn. Including Thursday's victory, Duke's margin of victory has been at least 27 points in five of the last six contests.
"Since the Connecticut game, they have been a buzz saw," said North Carolina head coach Sylvia Hatchell.
Hatchell, in turn, had few positive things to say about her own squad. Despite matching up with Duke very well athletically, the Tar Heels fell behind early and never recovered. Their vaunted backcourt duo of Coretta Brown and Leah Metcalf shot a combined 5-of-23 from the field, with eight turnovers.
"Basically, we just didn't come to play tonight," Hatchell said. "We can talk about rebounds, we can talk about fast breaks, we can talk about mismatches - we can talk about all that stuff. The University of North Carolina team that's ranked sixth in the nation and won 23 ball games wasn't here tonight. We just got whipped. Embarrassed and whipped."
Duke on the other hand, could essentially do no wrong, particularly after North Carolina pulled within 26-22 with five minutes to play in the first half. The Blue Devils exploded for a 29-11 run straddling the intermission, and UNC could not muster even a semblance of a run to try to get back in the game.
Although Beard and Tillis scored in bunches to open the contest, and would respectively finish with 19 and 21 points, teammates Sheana Mosch and Lindsey Harding also looked very comfortable offensively. Together the quartet scored all but seven of Duke's 44 first half points, and finished with a collective 70.
"We played the way we've been practicing," Goestenkors said. "Sheana's been having really good practices. Lindsey has been coming along as well. It was really nice to see us put that together in a game situation. It's really important to us - if we want to be the team that we want to be - to have balanced scoring."
Mosch's 16 points were a season-high, and reminded many of the senior's career-night two years ago when she put up 29 against the Tar Heels. With her playing days drawing to a close, Mosch felt inspired to attack the basket immediately after entering the game off the bench.
"I am almost finished, and I want to leave this season just knowing I gave my all," she said. "I want to play up to my potential and I don't think I've done that consistently this season. There's not much time left. I needed to start picking it up."
Mosch also spoke for many of her teammates win she mentioned that Duke felt more than miffed after hearing some of the North Carolina player quotes after January's overtime thriller, particularly those asserting the Tar Heels were the conference's strongest team.
"On our scouting report, we put those exact quotes on the second page to remind us that they believed that they were better than us," Mosch said. "That's motivation for us. We don't believe anyone can beat us."
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