DWHoops Photo by Orin Day

Walthea Rolle swats away Chelsea Gray's last second scoop shot, sealing a 62-60 win for the Tar Heels

Duke had an opportunity to essentially salt away the ACC race but came up short in Chapel Hill. In a game where neither team will relish going over the game tape, the Devils fell short because they couldn't stop UNC in transition and gave up far too many mid-range shots in their soft zone. On offense, the only players who were at all effective were Chelsea Gray, Jasmine Thomas and Allison Vernerey. Too many player settled for jump shots, even when they had open lanes. There wasn't much patience for a number of players to wait for a mismatch to be created, and other players found weak shots being swatted out of bounds by UNC's 6-6 center Waltiea Rolle. Of course, the Heels had many chances to put Duke away, but they shot a putrid 7-18 from the foul line and came close to coughing up a 5 point lead with about a minute and a half left. Jasmine Thomas came up with a huge three and Duke's defense held, but Gray had a shot blocked by Rolle as time expired. The Heels also shot just 18% from three (3-17), but their ability to hit those short, open jumpers was key to their victory. The Devils went through a number of offensive droughts; at one point, they went seven minutes without a point in the first half. It was not surprising to see Duke looking disorganized on offense; it was surprising, however, to see them look this disorganized and even passive on defense. They'll have a few days to work on this before going to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest.