“You’ve been in these games long enough, the games going to turn at some point. You feel like if you’re putting together good possessions offensively and defensively, I just believed, we’re going to start making shots, making layups. It has to turn at some point and that’s what you cling to is that your group is going to be able to dig it out.”
That’s Kara Lawson describing Duke’s come-from-behind 68-60 overtime win against North Carolina in a rowdy, sold-out Cameron Indoor Stadium.
I’ve used the pushing-the-boulder-up-the hill analogy before but somehow Duke was able to push the boulder up the hill and keep it there.
North Carolina outscored Duke 11-4 to start the game and scored the first 10 points of the second half. So many things were going wrong for Duke. North Carolina was pounding Duke on the glass, Duke was in foul trouble, not even layups were falling.
It was the kind of game when North Carolina was able to in-bounds the ball with 0.8 seconds left on the short clock and somehow get their leading scorer open for two.
That Deja Kelly jumper put the Tar Heels up 30-25 early in the third. Later that period Lexi Donarski hit a 3 right as the shot clock expired.
That made it 44-32. A Kelly layup made it 46-32 before Delaney Thomas scored down low to cut the deficit to 12 points after three.
At times Duke’s defense was suffocating. After falling behind 11-4 after 4:25 Duke held the Tar Heels without a field goal for the rest of the opening period.
Duke actually tied it at 12-12 on a Camilla Emsbo jumper but a Carolina foul shot left Duke down a point after one.
But Duke fell behind by three, then five at 17-12 and in a game where points were hard to come by, that seemed like a lot.
But Thomas scored twice in the final two minutes and Duke went into the locker room down 26-25.
Thomas is a freshman and she didn’t start. But starter Jadyn Donovan played 10 foul-plagued minutes without a point, a rebound, a block, a steal, an assist.
Thomas stepped in big time, competing on the glass and helping hold Alyssa Ustby to a 2 for 14 shooting nightmare.
“I was just thinking of how I could impact the game,” she said,” effect the game in a positive way.”
It looked like it would all be for naught as Duke squandered all of that momentum in a seven-point third quarter; North Carolina scored 20 and it hit 46-34.
Lawson called it “a haymaker. It startled us.”
Thomas said Duke has built a team and culture that can fight through hard times.
“We’re a really close team. A lot of people don’t see that behind the scenes. But we were able to keep each other steady, keep each other going. We were able to pull together.”
Lawson agreed.
“We just kept reiterating to them in the timeouts that it’s supposed to be hard. This is Duke-Carolina. It’s supposed to be hard. They just believed. They believe they can play with anybody. They’re an amazing group. They celebrate each other.”
It wasn’t just that. Duke’s defense forced tough shots and Carolina started coming up empty deep in the shot clock; Duke forced four shot-clock violations.
On the other end of the court Duke picked and rolled Carolina into a layup drill. Duke didn’t make them all. Thomas and Kennedy Brown missed some.
But not all of them.
Duke kept getting closer and closer and Carolina kept getting tighter and tighter.
Oluchi Okananwa hit a 3 and Duke was down 48-45. Thomas got an old-fashioned 3-point play and it 48-48. Taina Mair gave Duke its first lead, 51-50, a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired.
Okananwa tied the game from the line at 53-53, with 93 seconds left.
Both teams had a chance to win late. Duke had the ball with the shot clock off. But a turnover led to a fast-break. Duke forced a jump ball and Ustby missed inside at the buzzer.
Duke dominated the extra stanza. Deja Kelly put the Tar Heels up 56-53 but Duke scored the next five points, Thomas with a layup, then one of two from the line, then two foul Shots by Kennedy Brown.
Duke got separation with just under two minutes left when Reigan Richardson hit a jumper to put Duke up 62-58. Brown was fouled fighting for position and made both foul shots, a four-point possession that put Duke up 64-58.
Following a Kelly jumper Mair hit a baseline three and it was lights out for the visitors.
“She made some big-time shots for us down the stretch,” Lawson said. “She’s unafraid.”
Thomas led Duke with 19 points and seven rebounds. Mair had 13 points, Ashlon Jackson 10 points and five rebounds.
Deja Kelly led Carolina with 20 points but shot 6 for 19, with three turnovers.
Speaking of turnovers, Duke only had nine, while UNC had 14, at least partially negating Carolina's 44-33 rebounding advantage, 18 to 8 on second-chance points.
“I’m happy about that,” Lawson said of the turnovers. “We’ve struggled with it and we’ve talked about it and hopefully we can keep that. It’s necessary to win these games.”
The win puts Duke at 16-7 overall, 8-4 in the AC C, still undefeated at home in conference play.
Still, lots of work to do to get that ACC Tournament double-bye and burnish those NCAA credentials.
But for now, two thumbs up for a great comeback.
Whew, how's your neck? Can you claim whiplash as a work-related injury? This team, SMDH. Like they could lost in the first weekend of the NCAA or make it to the FF.