Last time Duke took on its struggling rival in January, it had to find a way to prevail to win without its two best players—Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown. With the Tar Heels limiting the duo to 8-of-27 shooting from the field, Duke had to lean on its role players to pull out a 12-point home win as its offensive development continued.
But the Blue Devil offense has appeared to turn the corner in recent weeks, with the team ripping off seven straight wins by at least 10 points and Greenwell and Brown combining for 40.3 points per game in their last three outings heading into the regular-season finale.
After a week off, No. 13 Duke will look to sweep the season series against North Carolina Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill. The Blue Devils have taken six straight against the Tar Heels, and will look to lean on the dynamic duo to shoulder the offensive load this time around.
“We’re just seeing how well they can rely on each other,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “They enjoy playing together and off of each other and creating opportunities for themselves and also their teammates. It’s becoming evident that if we can continue to have good decision-making, or even better decision-making, that we can score more points and our defense can take a step up a notch as well.”
Despite their recent success, the Blue Devils (24-4, 12-3 in the ACC) still have a few issues to clean up before the end of the regular season. Although Duke has been hot lately, convincingly knocking off top-20 foes in Syracuse and Miami in the past few weeks, it has had a couple of lapses that could cost it as competition ramps up in the postseason.
On Sunday, the Hurricanes took advantage of 12 Duke first-half turnovers to go on a 14-0 run and take the lead, and Wake Forest forced 12 turnovers, including seven travels in the first period, to stay close Feb 16.
“We just have one game left before the ACC tournament, so we’ve got stuff to do,” McCallie said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball better, get our assists up, turnovers down, and get some continuity with our rebounding, and playing two halves. The second half against Miami was very different than the first. We need to find a way to play two halves.”
In order to find the sort of consistent play needed in the postseason against the Tar Heels (14-14, 3-12), Duke will need to limit the dynamic duo of Stephanie Watts and Paris Kea. The tandem combines to average 33.9 points per contest to pace a perimeter-oriented North Carolina offense, but both players go about their business in very different ways.
A slasher, Kea uses drives inside to dissect opposing defenses, and Watts is a threat to fire away from long range at any given moment. She averages almost three 3-pointers per game and made 10 in one game earlier this year—she combines with fellow sharpshooter Jamie Cherry to force opposing defense to extend well beyond the arc.
But in the teams’ first matchup, Duke’s matchup zone showed its teeth, forcing Watts into seven turnovers and holding the Tar Heels to just 58 points.
“You’ve got to be there before the catch, before the catch, before the catch,” McCallie said. “She’s got long range, and you really have to be alert to where she is on the floor, find her, and get after her. The best way to guard her is not to let her have it, but that’s hard to do because she’s so agile. Limit her touches, be there before the catch as much as possible, and find her in transition.”
Outside of the backcourt duo’s success on offense, not much has gone right for North Carolina this season, as it ranks dead least in the ACC in scoring defense and rebounding margin with an undersized lineup. The Tar Heels’ style, which leans heavily on shooting beyond the arc, wasn’t very effective against Duke last time out—the team connected on just 4 of its 26 3-point attempts and let Blue Devil forwards Oderah Chidom and Kendall Cooper feast in the paint.
Duke has used a similar formula of shutting down perimeter-oriented opponents and dominating inside to dominate the Hurricanes and Orange by a combined score of 155-125, and one more decisive effort will send the Blue Devils into the postseason with plenty of momentum.
“They definitely have tremendous guards, and they’re quick and athletic and like to push the ball,” McCallie said. “It’s going to be the same same old situation where we rely on transition defense and really shutting down the gaps as they try to penetrate the gaps, and rebounding, similar to how we played Miami and Syracuse. That’s key for us, because we’ve got to continue to be better at shutting down gaps and locating shooters—they have tremendous 3-point shooters.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.