Plenty of snow and ice fell in Durham this week, but it appears that the Blue Devils have weathered the storm brought about by the start of ACC play.
Shutdown defense combined with another impressive performance from Azurá Stevens sent Duke past North Carolina 71-55 at Cameron Indoor Stadium Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils utilized a 3-2 zone to minimize the effectiveness of the Tar Heels’ potent guards, holding their Tobacco Road rivals to 5-of-34 from long range and just 26.3 percent from the field—the team’s worst shooting performance this season.
Stevens poured in 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, and graduate student Amber Henson snagged a career-high 16 rebounds to help Duke outscore North Carolina 21-7 in second-chance points and send the Tar Heels to their fifth straight conference loss.
“I loved the game for our team because it was a hard-fought game,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I thought we were able to really dictate the physical play in a good way with all this great rebounding [from Stevens and Henson].”
The teams traded blows in the opening minutes, with neither side able to develop any offensive momentum. Duke exhibited strong defensive pressure early on, limiting North Carolina to a 3-of-8 shooting performance in the opening five minutes, but the Tar Heels defense was just as strong as the Blue Devils went just 3-of-9 from the floor in the same span.
Duke’s biggest advantage against North Carolina (12-10, 2-5 in the ACC) was its size, which McCallie's squad exploited throughout the game to find opportunities on offense. Stevens led the Blue Devils with six points in the opening period, but it was Henson who stole the show for the Blue Devils (15-6, 4-3). The Tampa, Fla., native notched five points and five rebounds of her own, highlighted by an energizing 3-point play near the end of the frame that was part of a 9-0 run for Duke to close the quarter, leading to an 18-10 Blue Devil lead.
“[I found success] being more aggressive and really committing and not leaking out before going to the boards,” Henson said. “The games before this I haven’t really performed on the boards as I should, and this game I just really wanted to focus on crashing the boards.”
As the first half progressed, North Carolina’s guards began exploiting the Blue Devils’ tiring defense by crashing the offensive boards, grabbing four offensive rebounds in the second quarter. Stephanie Watts, Jamie Cherry, and Destinee Walker probed Duke’s zone all afternoon—the trio combined for 37 points—and a 3-point play by Walker with 3:51 left in the period gave her team its second lead of the game at 26-25.
Stevens countered the Tar Heel spurt by pouring in 10 points of her own during the second period. After Walker’s layup, Stevens responded with six straight points, scrapping out an and-one and hitting a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Although the Tar Heels carried momentum into the locker room after outscoring the Blue Devils 24-18 in the second quarter, Duke held a thin 36-34 advantage.
After regrouping at halftime, Duke came out firing in the third quarter, opening on an 8-0 run that forced North Carolina into an early timeout with 8:06 left in the period. Four of those points came from freshman point guard Kyra Lambert, who carried the bulk of the ball-handling load for her team as Angela Salvadores sat out for the third straight contest with an ankle injury.
"Kyra’s getting better every game. She’s become more poised,” McCallie said. “[She] plays solid defense, can really penetrate and can knock down shots, and I think she’s just getting more comfortable overall.”
Even as Stevens was held scoreless for the first 5:35 of the third quarter, Duke widened its lead to as many as 12 points as Lambert, Oderah Chidom and Rebecca Greenwell combined for 11 points during the period. On the other end, the Duke defense frustrated the Tar Heels into five turnovers and just six points on 2-of-17 shooting for the quarter, the lowest scoring period of North Carolina’s season. North Carolina's guards could not get anything going from long range—Cherry hit four of the team's five 3-pointers, but Watts finished 0-for-14 from distance and Walker went 1-of-8.
North Carolina mounted one more comeback attempt in the final 10 minutes, cutting the lead to 59-53 with 3:38 left. But back-to-back baskets by Stevens and Greenwell gave Duke breathing room, and Greenwell drilled a 3-pointer with 1:49 left to complete the 7-0 run and put the game away.
Duke will travel to Pittsburgh Thursday trying to pick up a fourth straight ACC win.
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