CHAPEL HILL—The Blue Devils entered their final regular season contest looking for more 40-minute consistency—they didn’t find it.
No. 7 Duke fell 64-60 to No. 14 North Carolina at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill in a game that featured a 5:48 first-half scoring drought by the Blue Devils. After North Carolina capitalized with a 20-0 run, a 10-minute Tar Heel scoring drought coincided with a 16-0 Duke run to make it a three-point game with 7:57 left in the contest.
Duke cut the lead to one with less than four minutes left, but suffered through more lapses in focus down the stretch. The Blue Devils allowed offensive rebounds on consecutive possessions that led to five Tar Heel points, before leaving freshman forward Stephanie Mavunga alone under the basket to cap North Carolina’s game-clinching 7-0 run.
“For us, it wasn’t a full 40 minutes,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “There were some really good pockets of opportunities, but there was a critical [lapse] after the half [during the 20-0 run]. It was poor execution, but poor effort was the bigger thing for us. Then our effort became really good after that. We’ve got to be a consistent team.”
The Blue Devils (25-5, 12-4 in the ACC) started the game by punching their rival in the mouth, opening with a 13-3 run. North Carolina made just one of its first eight shots and was bothered by the length of Duke’s frontcourt early in the game.
Although the streaky Tar Heels (22-8, 10-6) got off to a poor start, Mavunga got her team on track with her dominance in the paint. The Indianapolis native recorded eight points and six rebounds—all of which were offensive—in the first period and took advantage seemingly every time the Blue Devils forgot to box out in their zone defense.
Led by Mavunga, North Carolina maintained a rebounding advantage throughout the game—finishing with a 35-33 edge—despite Duke starting three players that stand 6-foot-3 or taller.
“I’m really bothered by this rebounding stat—how can that be?” McCallie said. “We’ve got our bigs out there and a bigger lineup—there is no excuse to be outrebounded. That’s the difference in the game. We have got to go to the basics. We should have been a better rebounding team today.”
Duke’s inability to block out allowed North Carolina to get right back in the game, but the Blue Devils’ carelessness with the ball allowed the Tar Heels to seize their first lead with 6:13 left in the first half. North Carolina continued taking advantage of Duke’s nine first-half turnovers to build a 36-31 halftime lead after closing the period on a 6-0 run.
Many of the Blue Devils’ miscues were the result of Duke’s guards dribbling into trouble. After starting the game 5-of-5 from the field, the Blue Devils very much looked like a team that was playing without its two point guards and got rattled by North Carolina’s man-to-man defense.
“I was just furious with the over-dribbling that was occurring,” McCallie said. “Against Wake, we had done a much better job of not doing that, and so to see that come back [was disappointing]. We’ve got to dribble less, pass more and rebound like crazy.”
Duke’s issues handling the ball continued early in the second half, and the Blue Devils let their passive offense affect their defense. Tar Heel freshman guard Allisha Gray—who had 23 points against Duke in their first matchup Feb. 10—knocked down three wide open 3-pointers to spark a 14-0 North Carolina spurt.
After fighting to maintain a 31-30 advantage with 1:53 left in the first half, the Blue Devils found themselves trailing 50-31 less than six minutes of game action later.
“It was really just a mental lapse,” Duke senior forward Haley Peters said. “They’re very good, but we kind of gave it away there. Part of it was probably locating [Gray] and talking—our communication on the defensive side has to be better.”
Duke’s veterans showed their resilience by sparking the ensuing 16-0 Blue Devil run, during which they held the Tar Heels scoreless for 10 minutes. Duke trapped aggressively out of its zone to cause seven North Carolina turnovers that fueled the Blue Devil offense during the stretch.
Unfortunately for Duke, the Blue Devils were unable to prevent the lapses that have plagued them throughout the season from cropping up during the game’s final minutes.
“We have to have consistency of our effort, fight and rebounding,” McCallie said. “There are some basics that have to happen. In that time where we aren’t successful and they were successful, we weren’t covering the basics—stops, rebounds and the fundamentals. The fundamentals are very important in March for every team.”
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