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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women’s basketball team won its fourth game in a row on Thursday night, beating No. 13 Duke 61-56 at Carmichael Arena.
The Tar Heels improved to 13-5 overall and 4-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with their fourth ACC win in a row and their fifth win of the season over a ranked team. It was Carolina’s third win in a row against the Blue Devils after sweeping them last season.
Duke fell to 16-2 (6-1 ACC) with its first loss in conference play.
Three UNC juniors scored in double figures with Deja Kelly at 19, Alyssa Ustby 16 and Kennedy Todd-Williams 13. Anya Poole tied her season high with nine rebounds to lead Carolina.
Coming on the heels of a victory against No. 11 NC State on Sunday, it marked the first time in program history that Carolina has beaten its Triangle rivals in back-to-back games when both opponents were ranked.
Another first on Thursday: the largest student section crowd in program history. More than 1,500 Carolina students lined up down the block and then filed in to help create a homecourt atmosphere that only got louder as the game went on. The total crowd was just over 5,000.
The game got off to an extremely slow start, with UNC up 12-5 after the first quarter (the Tar Heels held a ranked ACC opponent to single digits in the first quarter for the third time in the past four games) and the teams tied at 21 at halftime. For Carolina, 21 points at halftime matched the season low established a game ago when the Tar Heels beat NC State 56-47.
UNC got rolling in the third quarter, hitting 9 of 10 shots with Ustby 5-for-5 for 10 of her points. After Duke took a three-point lead on a bucket in the paint from Elizabeth Balogun three minutes into the period, Ustby answered to cut the lead to one. A layup by Todd-Williams with 5:58 to play gave the Tar Heels a one-point lead, 29-28. Although the score was tied once after that, the home team never trailed again and had stretched its lead to nine by the end of the quarter to head into the fourth up 40-31.
A layup by Kelly just over a minute into the quarter gave the Tar Heels their largest lead of the game, 42-31. Duke cut the margin to five on several occasions and then got it to three on a three-pointer by Shayeann Day-Wilson but never got closer. UNC was 8-10 from the foul line in the final period and 15-19 (78.9) on the day.
UNC’s 45 field goal attempts marked a season low (the team’s previous low was 59 at Virginia and the team’s two makes from three-point range were also a season low.
Day-Wilson led Duke with a season-high 24 points. Reigan Richardson added 12.
North Carolina is home against Georgia Tech on Sunday, celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Tipoff is 4 p.m.
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taylor and brown maybe having their monthly visitor
Carolina is still overrated. It was just one of those games where Duke needed to lose. 2 impact starters Brown and Taylor did not score until the last few minutes of the game.
Some great balling on the part of NC. Great point-guard by the way: athletic, fast and great ball handling and vision.