Alison Bales   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 18 11 4-7 1-1 2-2 1 2-5-7 3 1 1 1 TOT 38 16 6-11 1-1 3-4 4 3-9-12 4 2 3 1   Ali's battle with Larkins is why I enjoy watching college basketball. Ali finally conquered Larkins on the offensive end, having always had the ability to slow her down defensively. Bales' balance and composure allows her to play smart & physical defense while rarely fouling. She almost never leans into her opponent when blocking a shot and usually only uses one hand to block, keeping the other hand free & extended to slap it away. Larkins was on a mission to score on Ali in this game, preferably from the foul line. Larkins missed her last 4 shots against Bales and turned the ball over twice, blunting her otherwise-stellar effort against Duke. What was interesting was her approach to attacking Bales. She posted her up constantly but found it difficult to finish when she was twisting around her and found herself slightly off-balance. On many occasions, she would face up against Bales. Instead of taking the shot (and she thought about it), she would repost and try again. I asked her if she was worried about Bales blocking her shot in that situation. She replied that she wasn't worried about that at all (and it happened all the time), but rather that she didn't want to settle for the jumper against Ali. Ali's play has gotten to the point where she can make even the top post players in the country think about what they're doing against her. Ali looked to get in the scoring column quickly in this game and took her game outside. She hit 2 long jumpers and then sank her first three in Cameron. The only other three of her career came 2 years ago in Miami. In the first half, she also had a stickback, dishes to Cheek and A.Waner, and a couple of foul shots. In the second half, she had an easy finish on a pass from Smith and then a much more difficult drive that sort of capped off her career against the Heels, since they had blocked that move in the past. She finished with 4 blocks but altered countless other shots on the day that she moved into the 1000 point club at Duke. Her numbers put the lie to the notion that she's strictly a finesse player these days, and bode well for the future. Carrem Gay   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 7 0 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 1 0 0 TOT 11 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 1   Coach G noted that Carrem was not really ready to play major minutes against a team like UNC. She helped buy time for Cheek and grabbed a steal, but the normally ferocious rebounder wasn't ready to compete with Larkins. Wanisha Smith   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 16 0 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 2-0-2 0 0 2 1 TOT 35 8 2-8 1-2 3-7 3 2-1-3 0 0 5 2   Nish had a mostly unremarkable first half, other than dealing assists to Bales and E.Waner. At the very least, she prevented Little from going off on Duke this time around. In the second half, she started things off with 5 quick points and an assist. Down the stretch, she hit 3-4 from the foul line to stretch Duke's lead from 5 to 8 and also came up with a key rebound. Overall, she wasn't nearly as dominant as she was in the first half in Chapel Hill, but she responded enough to help her team. Abby Waner   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 17 5 2-7 1-4 0-0 2 0-0-0 0 0 0 1 TOT 35 13 4-11 2-6 3-7 3 2-2-4 0 6 3 3   Abby broke out of a shooting slump late in the first half, hitting a mid-range jumper and then stroking a three. Earlier, she found Bales for a three. Coach G used her to guard Latta for much of the game, where they exchanged the usual pleasantries in-between wanting to strangle each other. In the second half, she hit a three with Latta in her face and then stretched past UNC's defense to get the hoop that extended Duke's lead to 3 down the stretch. She missed several key foul shots down the stretch, but hit 1 with under ten seconds to go to salt it away. It should be noted that Latta was just 6-17 from the floor in this game, which includes hitting her last 2 shots in desperation time. Abby also expertly jumped into passing lanes, cutting off potential transition scores and opening up some easy baskets for her own team. Lindsey Harding   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 20 9 4-9 1-1 0-0 2 1-4-5 0 2 0 1 TOT 39 15 6-14 1-1 2-7 3 1-7-8 0 3 0 2   Lindsey said that she wanted to treat the fans to a show in the early going, and it was obvious that the Heels weren't quite prepared for her to be this aggressive on offense. Picking up from where she left off against Maryland a week ago, Lindsey nailed a three, got a steal and basket in traffic, hit a tough runner in the lane, found Mitch in transition after she got a steal, and then drove in for a score. All told, she accounted for 11 of Duke's first 18 points. Harding then went nearly fifteen minutes without a point as the Heels clamped down on her. She did hit several significant shots in the second half: a dynamite three point play that broke a 42-42 tie and then a steal & tough runner to put Duke up for good in the final six minutes. Harding also threw a great pass to A.Waner for a big three. Lindsey was mostly guarding either McCants or Miller in this game (though she did take some turns on Latta) and shut both of those players down. Harding didn't force shots and concentrated on rebounding & defense when she wasn't getting good looks. Joy Cheek   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 9 5 2-7 0-0 1-4 1 6-2-8 0 0 0 1 TOT 24 8 2-9 0-0 4-8 1 8-6-14 0 1 0 3   Joy does not have huge numbers overall as a frosh when compared to some of the other frosh in the league. However, few frosh have proven to be as ready to contribute when called upon as she, especially in the second half of the season. She broke through the frosh wall in early February and was a significant contributor in a number of big games. In this game, she missed a number of shots and free throws, but never gave up an inch to her opponents. Her only 2 field goals came on a cut and a stickback, but her biggest contribution to the game was her 14 rebounds. She played 24 minutes and looked like one of the freshest players on the court down the stretch. Her 2 free throws with 24 seconds left iced the game after the Heels had scored 4 in a row. There was nothing spectacular about Cheek's game, just a lot of sweat, smart positioning and a player taking responsibility for doing the most with her minutes. Impressively, Joy filled in not only for Gay, but also for Bales on a few sequences. Brittany Mitch   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 2 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 0 3 1 TOT 2 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 0 3 1   Brit's brief time on the floor was short-circuited by three quick turnovers. The first two were at least errors of commission, but getting stripped in the open court by Breland pretty much doomed her in this game. She did finish a break nicely on a pass from Harding, though. Bridgette Mitchell   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 6 0 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1-1 0 0 0 0 TOT 8 0 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1-1 0 0 0 0   Bridgette got limited minutes, in part because Cheek was playing so well. The one shot that she missed was a jumper. Emily Waner   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 5 3 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 TOT 9 5 2-4 1-3 0-0 0 0-0-0 0 1 0 0   Em was ready when called upon in this game, nailing a gorgeous three in the first half and coming up with an open-court strip of Latta and layup at the other end. Emily may be struggling with her shot a bit this year, but it's obvious that she never gives up and always tries to fight through whatever slump she might find herself in. She also has a flair for the dramatic, given the nature of her scores. Keturah Jackson   MIN PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st TOT DNP   U.N.C.   PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 30 13-33 2-7 2-2 7 7-11-18 4 2 8 8 TOT 62 24-60 3-14 11-12 11 10-29-39 4 7 20 23 Duke   PTS FG 3FG FT A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 35 14-37 4-8 3-6 8 12-13-25 3 4 7 6 TOT 67 23-61 6-13 15-33 14 18-27-45 4 14 15 13 Please use top menu to reach any of our 6 photo galleries! Copyright © 2007 DWHOOPS.COM (Orin A. Day, Durham, NC, USA.) 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