The game's outcome was long decided, but if you happened to amble into Cameron Indoor Stadium with 1:31 left in the second half of Monday's defeat, you would have witnessed Duke's loss in a nutshell.
North Carolina power forward Erlana Larkin's play in the last two minutes embodied the game's essence-physical post play-better than any Blue Devil.
With the over-aggressive Tar Heels' win securely intact, Duke forced an off-balanced, shot-clock-beating heave from Italee Lucas, which rimmed out. Enter Larkins, who maneuvered around two Duke defenders to grab her sixth and final offensive rebound of the night and bank the ball back into the hoop in spite of a slap to her arm.
The small legion of visiting North Carolina faithful-louder than the Cameron Crazies all night-hollered one last time, as did Larkins, who had good reason to scream.
UNC's frontcourt trio of Larkins, Rashanda McCants and LaToya Pringle burned the Blue Devils for 40 minutes, combining for 46 points and, most importantly, 23 rebounds, including 18 on the offensive glass.
And in a game both teams entered believing the ultimate outcome would be decided on the boards, the final rebounding margin put the visitors on top for good.
"We knew coming in here that the key to the game was going to be rebounding," Pringle said. "We really pride ourselves on crashing the offensive boards real hard. We got in there and battled hard.... We came in here to rebound and play hard."
Rebounding has been a common deficiency in most of Duke's losses-the Blue Devils have lost the battle of the boards in five of six losses, and were outrebounded by No. 2 Tennessee 40-29 in their last loss, Jan. 28.
UNC took down 43 rebounds and Duke 34. UNC grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and Duke secured only 12 defensive boards. Advantage, Tar Heels.
The Blue Devils did notch 22 offensive rebounds, five more than their season average, and while head coach Joanne P. McCallie was pleased with that effort, she acknowledged it was a skewed statistic as five came in the last 33 seconds. Still, UNC outdid its nemesis by grabbing 25 defensive rebounds.
To make matters worse, Duke's leading rebounder, Chante Black, grabbed only five boards after securing just two against the Lady Vols last week. Senior guard Wanisha Smith led the team with eight rebounds-a solid accomplishment for her, but a telling sign for the team.
"It just comes down to all-around rebounding," junior Abby Waner said. "We can't fully rely on posts to rebound, it's a guard thing as well. It has to be a team effort, and it takes more than just the initial box out. You really have to push through the ball."
It's a lesson that Duke learned, yet again, the hard way.
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