CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- After battling through a highly contested first half, senior Vicki Krapohl came out of the locker room and made the statement that she did not want to lose to arch-rival North Carolina in the teams' final regular season meeting. The senior, who lost her starting job to sophomore Lindsey Harding at the beginning of the season, came out and sunk back-to-back three-pointers just minutes into the second half to give the Blue Devils a 14-point lead that would be tested but not relinquished.
The host Tar Heels, playing in front of the largest crowd in North Carolina women's college basketball history at the Dean Smith Center--rather than their usual home at the Carmichael Auditorium--made runs at Duke during the latter part of the second half, but timely shooting, especially by senior Alana Beard, led the No. 4 Blue Devils (20-3, 11-1 in the ACC) to an 89-79 victory over No. 15 North Carolina (18-5, 8-4) Saturday night.
"We executed, got good looks when we needed to, and I thought we played with a lot of poise, especially in this environment," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said.
The Duke seniors--Beard, Krapohl and Iciss Tillis--led the way for the Blue Devils, scoring 65 of the team's 89 points while providing leadership and energy on the court and in the huddle. Krapohl set a career high with 20 points, making 6-of-10 three point attempts, including the momentum-swinging shots at the start of the second half.
"I am just really proud of Vicki," Goestenkors said. "We talked to Vicki when we revisited the roles for the team a couple of games ago, and we told everybody that we wanted Vicki to search for her threes, which is different from just taking the open three."
The senior, who said she gained confidence when Goestenkors asked her to be more assertive offensively, looked like a transformed player on the court, taking shots with a hand in her face, something she did not generally do earlier in the season.
Krapohl was not the only Blue Devil who had a terrific offensive night, as Beard continued to make her case for National Player of the Year, scoring 31 points in the winning effort. When the Tar Heels made a run at the Blue Devils late in the second half and a successful comeback seemed within reach, the senior hit one of her four three pointers as the shot clock was winding down. The basket put Duke up by 11 with five minutes remaining.
The myriad Blue Devil attack gave the North Carolina defense trouble, according to head coach Sylvia Hatchell. Krapohl attributed her offensive burst to the attention Tar Heel defenders had to give to her teammates.
"We have so many great players that they can't stop everything," Krapohl said. "When Alana is driving or Lindsey is driving and we get the ball inside to Mistie [Bass] and Iciss it is just really hard to start everything. And today I got wide open looks and I was just able to knock them down."
Tillis added 14 points and established herself early in the game. Making a pair of threes and driving to the basket for a layup, the senior forward led Duke to a quick 14-8 advantage. The Blue Devils maintained their early lead for the majority of the first half, keeping the crowd of 10,278 under control.
The Blue Devils' 48 percent shooting from the floor could have been demoralizing for the Tar Heels, but Hatchell's team continued to fight. Freshman point guard Ivory Latta--who bruised her elbow during the contest but played through the pain--led the way for North Carolina on the offensive end with 25 points. The Blue Devils struggled to contain Latta's penetration despite having a quick and athletic backcourt.
The Tar Heels' Leah Metcalf personified her team's resiliency during the very physical game, hitting a number of shots down the stretch to try to marshall a comeback. The junior scored 14 of her 15 points during a six-minute stretch in the second half that began at the 10-minute mark. Still, North Carolina never got closer than six after the pair of Krapohl threes.
"I think we got stops," Beard said. "I think the whole game they did a nice job penetrating, and I think when the game got kind of close, we got stops."
The Tar Heels outrebounded Duke by 13, accomplishing one of Hatchell's primary objectives, and pulled down 20 offensive boards. The rebounding deficit was indicative of the Blue Devils' mediocre play on the interior, as Bass, Brittany Hunter and Monique Currie struggled to prevent penetrators from reaching the basket and the North Carolina post players from maneuvering to easy layups.
The win, the 11th consecutive for the Blue Devils in the series against their Tobacco Road foe, essentially secures the team's fourth-consecutive ACC regular season title and the No. 1 seed entering the early March ACC Championship. The Blue Devils have lost once in conference, at Florida State, after which Goestenkors reassessed the roles of each member of her team. With only four regular season contests remaining, Duke holds a three game advantage on North Carolina and stands four games ahead of Maryland--the only team besides the Tar Heels mathematically capable of catching the Blue Devils.
All involved noted the excellent atmosphere in this high scoring conference showdown. Goestenkors' team, which has struggled offensively in recent years when facing ranked opponents in games with national implications, played one of its best offensive games of the season, despite the physical play. And despite the loss, Hatchell was pleased with her team's effort and the progress she felt her young team made Saturday night.
"I thought we scored enough points to win," Hatchell said. "I thought we were ready. Duke made shots, they made three-point shots and that was the difference in the game. But they ain't going to make those shots every game."
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