For the first time in ACC play this season, having only eight players on its roster hurt the No. 5 women's basketball team during its 90-75 at No. 20 North Carolina. The problem, for the Blue Devils, was that coach Gail Goestenkors did not have enough substitutes to remove all of her players who deserved praise from the Duke fans.
With 1:29 left, Iciss Tillis, Duke's second-leading scorer of the night with 23, came out of the game. Alana Beard, who had left the game to an ovation seven seconds earlier, jumped at Tillis, wrapping her arms and legs around her teammate. Tillis stumbled backward for a second, but regained her balance and held Beard in a joyous embrace.
The two sophomore All-America candidates were celebrating not only a decisive victory over their biggest rival, but also the Blue Devils' (24-3, 16-0 in the ACC) closing out the regular season with a perfect 16-0 conference record.
Late in the first half, however, Duke's perfection in conference was far from assured. With 5:15 remaining in the first half, Nikki Teasley consecrated her senior night with three of her 15 first-half points to give the Tar Heels (22-7, 11-5) a 34-27 lead.
A few minutes later, Monique Currie missed a jumper, but Beard ran in, jumped along the baseline, grabbed the rebound and put the ball back in the hoop, all in mid-air. Just as it would have in a game of streetball "21," the shot brought the Tar Heels down to zero.
The run, which ensued, stretched to 40-8 over the end of the first and the beginning of the second half. Wynter Whitley buried a three-point shot from the corner with five seconds remaining in the half, giving the Blue Devils a 45-42 lead at the break.
Duke was able to run in the second half, as long rebounds turned into fast-break points and the deficit continued to grow. The Tar Heels missed 20 of their first 21 shots, while the Blue Devils converted transition layup after transition jumper. Tillis took her first rest with 11:52 left in the game and Beard, who finished with a team-leading 26 points, was spelled at 10:48. It was only at this point, with a 71-44 Blue Devil lead, that the Tar Heels began to close the gap.
Despite the enormous margin, North Carolina continued to fight and foul to cut the final deficit to 15.
The Tar Heels surged out to a lead behind the strong three-point shooting of Coretta Brown and Teasley. The two hit a combined five-of-10 from behind the arc in the first half.
"Coretta just got off to such a strong first half," Goestenkors said. "Nikki and Coretta both had 15 points. So there's 30 points between those two players. We needed to do a better job on both of them, and make a commitment to shut them down."
The Blue Devils successfully defended North Carolina's two stars in the second half; Brown finished with 23 and Teasley finished with 18. With their leading scorers shut down, the Tar Heels could not stop Duke from celebrating.
Beard and Vicki Krapohl left the game with 1:36 remaining. Beard went first, running down the bench giving high fives. Krapohl followed her, giving out the requisite high fives, until she came to Beard. Then, national player of the year candidate Beard reached her hand as high as she could, and the dimunitive point guard skyed to give her five.
These two basked in ovations from the crowd, but none of the other Blue Devils had the chance.
Freshman Monique Currie, who scored only eight points, but had six assists and played excellent defense, did not get her own cheer at the end of the game.
Neither did fellow-freshman Whitley, who scored 13 points and has, according to Goestenkors, "been playing her best basketball."
The team's lone senior, Krista Gingrich, who finished with eight points, seven assists and just two turnovers, also missed an ovation from the Duke crowd that began chanting "16-0" with less than a minute left.
Having just eight players on the roster has not hurt the Blue Devils much as they strolled through the ACC schedule--but having a few game-eligible walk-ons would have been nice so all the stars could get their ovations.
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