On Sunday afternoon head coach Sylvia Hatchell did not get the birthday present she had hoped for, but instead her team was served a 93-57 blowout loss to Duke University in Carmichael Arena.
Freshman Stephanie Watts led North Carolina with 18 points in UNC’s final game of the regular season. In addition, freshman Destinee Walker contributed 14 points, while redshirt junior Hillary Summers added 10 points and 15 rebounds for a double-double and a career-high in rebounds.
Duke was led by Rebecca Greenwell’s 27 points, followed by Oderah Chidom’s 20 points.
UNC closes out the season with a 14-17 overall record, while 4-12 against ACC opponents, ending the season on a five-game losing streak. The team’s downfall of the season was away games, in which the Tar Heels lost eight of nine games.
With the win, Duke is 19-11 overall and 8-8 against conference opponents.
UNC did not have a lead or tie the Blue Devils at any point in the game. With 57 points, it is the fourth least amount of points North Carolina has scored all season. UNC failed to break 60 points five times this season.
A Duke 7-0 run over two and a half minutes gave the Blue Devils a 9-2 lead at 5:30 in the first period. Once UNC broke through with a Cherry three-pointer, the team was 1-for-6 in their attempts over the scoring drought.
The Blue Devils did not completely run away with the game early on, leading the Tar Heels 23-14 at the end of the first period.
The second period would be North Carolina’s downfall and the major difference in the game, as the Tar Heels were outscored 30-8 after UNC went 10-for-35, shooting only 28 percent in the first half.
“I felt like we just got behind because of our defense,” Summers said. “We just have to do better with that. You can score all day, but if you’re not stopping the other team you can’t win.”
At halftime, North Carolina trailed 53-22, with Greenwell’s 19 first half points for Duke nearly matching UNC’s score.
“Our defense the first half was basically non-existent because they just scored at will,” Hatchell said. “But again, Duke played well, shot the ball good, got rebounds, but we didn’t defend them very well at all. We took some bad shots and they were able to come down and get some easy buckets on transition.”
The Tar Heels nearly matched the Blue Devils’ 21 third period points with 17 of their own, though they ended the period trailing 74-39.
Again, UNC remained close in scoring in the fourth period with 19 points, compared to Duke’s 18.
“I feel like it’s kind of more motivation when you’re down, because it’s like, of course you want to come back and win,” Summers said. “At those moments we try to stick together and make sure we’re doing what we need to do. Obviously it was kind of tough today, but that’s usually what we try to do.”
At Duke’s peak, the Blue Devils led by 39 points at 80-41 with 7:43 remaining in the fourth period.
North Carolina completed only 28 percent of their shots throughout the game, going 19-for-66, compared to Duke’s 52 percent completion rate on the game. In addition, Duke had 54 points in the paint, compared to North Carolina’s 10 and 51 rebounds compared to UNC’s 33.
“Rebounding has been our Achilles’ heel all year and it definitely was tonight too,” Hatchell said.
With a nod to her seniors on Senior Day, Hatchell sporadically gave limited minutes to Rachel McGirt, Anne Corrigan, Marissa Riley and Paige Neuenfeldt. The four seniors combined for two points with a Riley field-goal.
Worth noting, Watts, an ACC Rookie of the Year candidate, went 5-for-11 on three-point attempts in the game. 15 of the freshman’s 18 points were from distance. On her impressive first year, Watts said the most memorable aspect of the regular season will be the team’s senior leadership.
“Although we may be limited in numbers, I guess that’s what people look at it as, the senior leaders were just able to really keep us motivated and keep us inspired to keep working hard and never give up,” Watts said.
The Tar Heels will next play in the ACC Women’s basketball tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, which spans from March 2 – 6. Their first game is on Wednesday at one o’clock against Pittsburgh.
“The regular season’s over and we’re getting ready for tournament time,” Hatchell said. “We need to learn a lot from tonight. I just talked to the team downstairs about what ACC tournament means and how well we’ve always played. We’ve been in the championship many times and we’ve done that with some teams that are not seated that high, so we’ve got a tough battle, but I want to go there and make some noise.”
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