1st Half Recap
Once again, when the Heels and Devils get set to play, it's not an
environment for those allergic to contact. There were 36 fouls called in
this game, but many more pushes, shoves and desperate attempts to grab the
ball by both teams. The Devils had dropped 2 in a row in Cameron to the
Heels, and they were anxious to reverse two years of defeats even further.
This game had seeding implications, with the Heels needing to win to have
any chance of getting Raleigh & Greensboro. Even winning the ACC title at
this point won't do it, given their weaker strength of schedule and 2
losses to Duke. This was Senior Day for two players who went through
quite an odyssey at Duke. Lindsey Harding was a career role player,
passing the ball to Alana Beard & Monique Currie. She spent that one
season not on the floor, but came back a stronger person. Bales barely
played as a freshman and spent many moments last year on the bench because
she wasn't aggressive enough on offense. After her revival in the NCAA
tournament last year, she didn't become an offensive juggernaut this year,
but rather picked her spots and took what the defense gave her.
Defensively and on the boards, she has had her finest season yet. Both
players have become tremendous leaders and inspirations for their younger
teammates, who know that if they are patient, they will also get their
time in the spotlight.
Defensively, UNC played with a lot more intensity in this game than in
Chapel Hill. Their press didn't bother Duke that much, as they forced
just 7 steals and scored only 8 points off turnovers. This is their
bread-and-butter against most opponents, along with second-chance points.
Despite Duke's many other problems in this game, the fact that they took
care of business in both of those categories meant everything in winning.
Before the game, the tenting students (I believe they were up to 10-12
tents y the end) and many others lined up an hour and a half before the
game began to fill it up. Abby Waner arrived at Cameron at around that
time, and got the usual cheers and proposals for marriage. A cheer sheet
had been prepared for the game and the prepared students had baby-blue
frog dolls (in honor of Ivory Latta), among many other props. The Senior
Day ceremonies were nice and obviously meant a lot to everyone involved.
Both teams seemed pretty loose--the Heels traditionally do a pre-game
huddle on the center court of their opponents, and they happened to
surround the Blue Devil mascot as they did it this time around!
Lindsey & Ali came out on fire, helping Duke build an early lead.
Lindsey popped a three off a screen and the Ali grabbed the ball from
powerful UNC forward Erlana Larkins. Larkins was dominated defensively in
her last meeting with Bales, and was looking to be much more aggressive
here. After the steal, Wanisha Smith found Bales for a 17' baseline
jumper. Rashanda McCants missed a three, but Larkins bulled Carrem Gay
out of the way for an easy stickback. Coach G responded by yanking her
from the game 30 seconds later and putting in Joy Cheek, a move that would
prove to be a key one. After the game, Gail noted that Gay's shoulder is
still very sore after she hurt it last week against Maryland, and that she
in fact did not practice during the week. Seeing that her play was
tentative as a result (she was obviously afraid to take a hit), it was
clear that she could only be used for spot minutes. Considering that
Cheek had to play big minutes against the Heels in their last meeting due
to foul trouble by Gay, this was a substitution that everyone was
comfortable with.
After a Duke miss, Latta faked a three, drove and hit a short jumper.
She was already showing more restraint than she did in her chuck-happy
first meeting with Duke. Abby Waner missed a three, but Cheek grabbed the
first of her 14 rebounds (8 offensive). Harding then hit Bales for a 17'
jumper. After some misses by both teams, Harding stripped McCants and
zipped downcourt for one of her one-woman fast breaks. Camille Little,
who was the one Heel who scored prolifically against Duke in their first
meeting, got open for a three to cut the lead to 9-7 about five minutes
into the half.
Waner drove and dished to Bales, who was a few inches beyond the three
point line and drained the trey. Larkins went down on that play with an
ankle injury and would miss the next three minutes. Not coincidentally,
Duke took a 16-9 when she was gone. That included a Harding runner and a
steal & dish to Brittany Mitch. Unfortunately, Duke was slowed down by 3
turnovers in two minutes by Mitch, the last of which was a clean strip by
Jessica Breland for a layup. That triggered a 9-0 run by the Heels that
featured a turnover by Smith converted into points by a returning Larkins,
a drive by Little and a three by Latta--her only one of the game. With
ten minutes to go in the half, the Heels took their first lead at 18-16.
UNC's press was starting to bother Duke and ground its offense to a halt,
while the Heels were extremely patient at the offensive end.
Harding sliced through the defense for a layup and then forced Latta into
a miss. Duke got 3 cracks at the basket on their next possession, with
Bales getting a stick back that restored a 2-point lead for the Devils.
Little drove and dished off to Larkins, who managed to slip behind Bales.
When UNC moved the ball and forced Duke to run laterally, they had a much
easier time getting good looks. When they just took quick shots or dumped
the ball inside without reposting, that played into Duke's hands
defensively.
Joy Cheek then took a shot, missed, and grabbed her own board, getting
fouled in the process. She sank 1 to put Duke up 21-20. Latta was then
fouled going to the hoop by Harding and sank 2 herself. In the postgame,
she was asked about being less aggressive on offense in this game, and she
noted that in focusing on trying to run plays, it made her less aggressive
than if she simply attacked the hoop more often. Bales then hit Cheek on
one of the rare cuts that was open for Duke; the Heels did a great job of
bumping Duke's cutters the whole game.
The next few possession saw the Heels block 2 Duke shots and Latta miss
back-to-back threes. Smith grabbed the carom of that shot and dished to
Emily Waner, who had come into the game a few minutes earlier. She fired
up a shot that was so high-arching that it threatened to scrape the
ceiling, and it dropped for a huge three. McCants drove to cut Duke's
lead to 26-24, but Cheek grabbed her own miss and stuck it back in for a
score. Cheek got the ball back and was fouled rebounding her own miss,
but shot blanks on 2 free throw attempts. McCants scored 4 straight
points (her last of the game) to tie things up at 28 with 3:18 left in the
half.
Cheek grabbed a Harding miss and the team called time out to set up a 15'
jumper by Abby Waner, who desperately needed to see the ball go into the
basket. Up to that point, Bales & Harding had scored 18 of Duke's 28
points. Little missed a layup and Cheek found Abby for a huge three. The
Heels went cold and fouled Bales after she grabbed a board. Ali sank both
shots to give the Devils a 35-28 lead. Duke got the ball back 3 times but
Bridgette Mitchell, Abby Waner & Alison Bales all missed jumpers. Latta
drove and dished to larkins to cut the lead to 5 and the Heels got the
ball back, but Duke's defense held to make it 35-30.
Coach G made some interesting decisions on defense. She had Abby
guarding Latta for much of the half, with Harding switching over to her
only on occasion. Then she had Emily guard her for a bit, keeping her
hands up. UNC's Alex Miller had Em on her at one point and demanded the
ball, thinking that she could turn the corner on her. Well, she did turn
the corner--but ran straight into Bales, who blocked her shot. Harding
found it much tougher to get good shots in the last ten minutes of the
half, as the Heels doubled her high and either got the ball out of her
hands or forced extremely tough shots going to the basket. The big stat
of the first half was Duke's 25-18 lead on the boards and their 15-4
advantage on second-chance points. Bales had 11 points and 7 rebounds in
the half, while Cheek had 5 points and 8 rebounds. Of her 6 first-half
offensive rebounds, 3 came on following up her own shot and 3 arose due to
misses from her teammates. Both teams shot around 40% and a similar (and
surprisingly low) number of turnovers: 8 for UNC, 7 for Duke. Duke had a
halftime lead, but the momentum in this game was neutral.
