The ACC Women's Tournament hits the quarterfinals, with some compelling storylines
Duke-Carolina round three among them
Two days in Greensboro, seven games gone in the ACC Women’s Tournament. Quarterfinals Friday and guess what. The Big Four is still standing, all four of them.
Duke was locked in to the quarters of course, after earning a double bye as the second seed. Eighth-seeded NC State hammered ninth-seeded Syracuse and seventh-seeded North Carolina defeated Clemson--more on that later.
But Wake Forest is the story-line, so far. They are seeded 12th and defeated injury-ravaged Virginia Wednesday. Florida State was next. The fifth-seed was minus freshman phenom Ta’Niya Latson, out with an injury but still. The game played to seed through the opening half, which ended with FSU up 34-16, after the Deacons put all of two points on the board in the second period.
Then the most remarkable thing happened. Wake Forest started scoring. And kept on scoring. And FSU stopped scoring. And kept on not scoring.
Florida State led 38-18 with 9:15 left in the third. It was 42-27 with 5:27 left.
Then the Deacons went on a 26-0 run. No, that is not a typo. Twenty-six consecutive points. And no, Dan Quinn was nowhere to be seen.
Wake caught up, their star Jewel Spear hit a couple of 3s and they got some separation and Florida State never really made a counter-run.
The final was 65-54, Wake Forest outscoring FSU 49-20 in the second half. After being held scoreless in the first half, Spear scored 19 points in the second half.
“We just kept talking about them believing in themselves,” Wake coach Megan Gebbia said. “I kept telling them that I believed in them and they were made for March.”
In theory the 8/9 game should be competitive. But even without Diamond Johnson, NC State’s eight-seeded Wolfpack toyed with Syracuse 83-58. State dominated inside with posts Camille Hobby (16 points, six rebounds) and River Baldwin (14 points, seven rebounds) pretty much doing what they wanted. Baldwin made all seven of her field-goal attempts.
Any chance of a Syracuse win was predicated on a big shooting performance from guard Dyaisha Fair. But she shot 4 for 17 and that was that.
Miami finished off the night, pulling away from Boston College in the second half to post an 84-69 win.
And the game that most interested Duke fans saw seventh-seeded North Carolina hold off 10th-seeded Clemson 68-58 to set up another one of those Duke-Carolina games that seem to pop up with some regularity this time of year.
It never really seemed like a game Clemson could win, at least not after Clemson star Amari Robinson cooled off after 13 first-quarter points. She ended with 27 but no other Tiger scored more than seven.
Still, the Tigers kept it close enough that Carolina had to keep its starters in until the final seconds, so maybe that will help Duke tomorrow night.
And it may help Duke that they’ll be playing their first game in five days against a Carolina team presumably all tuckered out playing their second game in two nights.
Of course, if that were a determining factor presumably fresh Florida State wouldn’t have collapsed in the second half against presumably tired Wake Forest.
Everett Case frequently said that the hardest thing in basketball was beating a good team three times in the same season. And we all know that Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils are a good team, maybe a lot better than that.
But North Carolina is healthy and confident and focused. And talented. Then again Duke is bigger and deeper and can’t possibly play any worse on defense than they did last Sunday.
One would think.
And a whole team of Duke players has to be thrilled at a chance for redemption.
“I think we know them well,” Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said. “There's a familiarity of opponent that's helpful.”
The Duke-Carolina game tips off at six.
But it’s not the only compelling storyline. NC State is shooting for a four-peat and top-seeded Notre Dame is dealing with some pretty significant injury issues of their own, Dara Mabrey definitely out with a knee injury and star guard Olivia Miles likely out with another knee injury; I’ve ever nothing to the contrary.
Adding in the home-court advantage, the top seed may well be an underdog against the eighth seed.
It’s tempting to see the other two games as the under-card, Wake Forest against Louisville to open the festivities and Miami against Virginia Tech to close it out. But in a tournament without a single single-possession game, we’ll take our excitement where we find it and I suspect the Battle of the Blues will provide enough to keep us all animated.