Third times the charm.
As with last Sunday, Duke’s women and North Carolina’s women played a defensive struggle, this time in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. But this time Duke was the team that ground out some tough points in the clutch, while the Tar Heels came up empty.
In fact, North Carolina scored four points in the final period, missing their final seven shots. The final was 44-40.
That’s right. Duke and North Carolina have played two games in less than a week and neither team was able to score more than 45 points in either of them.
But win and advance is the March mantra and Duke is the team advancing, into tomorrow’s semifinals against surging Virginia Tech.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Kara Lawson said “but we were able to figure out a way to get it done, which is all you need to do in a tournament like this.”
Duke trailed most of the game. After going up 9-5, the Blue Devils went about six minutes without scoring. Kennedy Brown scored inside to give Duke its last lead until the fourth period, at 11-10. Duke fell behind 14-11, Celeste Taylor tied it with a triple and then it was all Tar Heels.
Turnovers again plagued Duke. Try 13 in the first half. Duke also didn’t shoot a foul shot in the first half. It was 24-16 late in the half and it looked like the wheels were about to come off. A four-point play by Deja Kelly that made it 22-16 sure didn’t help.
But Elizabeth Balogun knocked down a 3-pointer, Duke got a final stop and Duke was in shouting distance, down 24-19 at the half.
Kara Lawson said Duke prioritized cleaning up turnovers at intermission.
“We just talked about being more mindful of what we were doing,” Lawson said. “When we see an opening, be aggressive. What I didn’t want them to be was tentative. We didn’t need conservative, we needed attacking. We just needed to be more mindful when we were attacking.”
“I think just settling down a little bit,” Mia Heide added. “The game got a little chaotic so trusting in ourselves and taking a deep breath.”
But somehow the ACC’s best defensive team let one of the ACC’s best 3-point shooters wide open in the third quarter. Carolina’s Eva Hodgson knocked down two 3-pointers and the Tar Heels had their biggest lead, at 30-21 two minutes into the second half.
A nine-point deficit in a game this defense-dominant is a pretty big hill to climb.
“Our goal is to take challenged shots every time,” Lawson said. “We felt like in the first half that they got loose for some layups and some open 3s. The rest of that second half we were in their face every time, challenging. That was just foundational, basic but not easy to do.”
Duke got a bucket inside by Brown, another 3-pointer by Balogun, Shayeann Day-Wilson’s only field goal of the game stacked around some ferocious defensive stops and Duke caught up. Reserve center Heide made it 32-31 UNC with two foul shots and tied the game at 34-34 with a stick-back with a minute left in the third.
Alyssa Ustby hit a jumper for Carolina and they ended the third clinging to a tenuous 36-34 lead.
Celeste Taylor scored the first four points of the final period but Anya Poole responded with a 4-0 run for Carolina.
Duke was down again, with four minutes left, then less than three left after some empty possessions both ways.
Reigan Richardson stepped up. Richardson was scoreless last Sunday against the Tar Heels but she scored 10 points in Greensboro, none more important than a long jumper that tied it again, at 40-40 with 2:40 left.
“I was proud of Reigan, with how she played,” Lawson said. “She’s one of our more talented scorers on our team and she brings an ability to take and make tough shots. She just keeps growing.”
Carolina was playing its second game in two days against a fresher Duke team. Maybe they got tired--they said that was not the case, so maybe not. But they kept missing, Duke kept getting blocks and rebounds and Duke scored the final four points of the game from the line, Balogun making a pair, Shayeann Day-Wilson making two of four.
In the frantic, final 45 seconds Carolina missed two 3-pointers trailing 42-40 and another trailing 43-40.
Kelly, Carolina’s leading scorer, ended the game shooting 4-22. Ustby was 3-13, Kennedy Todd-Williams 2-10.
These are their three All-ACC players.
Balogun led Duke with 11 points, one more than Richardson. Taylor had eight points, a game-high seven rebounds and two assists.
But Lawson said Day-Wilson (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers and lots of floor burns) had one of her “best games of the season, the way she ran our team. The way she set her teammates up for open looks, the way she stayed composed. I think it might be her best game of the season, to be honest with you. It was awesome how she just led her team to victory. The number one job as a point guard is to lead your team to wins. It's not to win assist titles or be named to certain teams. It's to win. She did that tonight. She led her team to a win.”
A very physical game and a much tougher game than VT’s 68-42 demolition of Miami. A very tough ask for Saturday’s second semifinal; Notre Dame and Louisville play first.
But Duke will follow the lead of Taylor, who says the team’s philosophy is simple.
“Just fighting, fighting until the end. Fighting until the buzzer goes off.”