CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Duke traveled to Chapel Hill to face Carolina in game two of this years rivalry. Carolina lost the first meeting with Duke, 96-56, in Durham. Duke, on the other hand, won the ACC regular season title and clinched the #1 seed for The ACC Tournament, by virtue of their 74-64 victory over Miami a few days ago. Motivation coupled with playing on their home court, seemed to favor Carolina-at least on paper.
Coach Joanne P. McCallie and her Duke team must not read the papers. Duke led Carolina 44-30 at the end of the first twenty minutes. The Tar Heels regrouped and played a determined 2nd half. Duke withstood a furious rally in the closing minutes of the game, to sweep the season series with The University of North Carolina Tar Heels. North Carolina Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell said it best, “You know, if we had played the first half like we did the second half, we’d be a lot happier right now.”
Tricia Liston (15 points), Elizabeth Williams ((13 points), Chelsea Gray (12 points), and Allison Vernerey (10 points) led Duke in scoring. What’s interesting is, Liston and Verenerey, scored their points off the bench. Duke’s bench became very important in the game when starter Haley Peters was inadvertently elbowed by Carolina’s Chay Shegog, and knocked to the floor. Peters mouth was flowing with blood from the contact. She was led to the locker room where the doctors stitched both the inside and outside of her mouth. Coach McCallie commented on her teams fortitude, “ It was a great basketball game. It was sort of a season in a game, relative to some of the adversity. I didn’t think we could get more adversity, but we did and I think the team handled the game very, very well.” Peters returned to the game in the 2nd half and was a key contributor down the stretch.
Next up for Duke and Carolina is The 2012 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament starting March 1, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The schedule is:
Thursday
Game No. 1 - Seed No. 5 North Carolina vs. Seed No. 12 Clemson 11:00 a.m. (RSN)
Game No. 2 - Seed No. 8 Florida State vs. Seed No. 9 N.C. State 3:00 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 3 - Seed No. 7 Wake Forest vs. Seed No. 10 Virginia Tech 6:00 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 4 - Seed No. 6 Virginia vs. Seed No. 11 Boston College 8:00 p.m. (RSN)
Friday
Game No. 5 - Seed No. 4 Georgia Tech vs. winner of Game 1 11:00 a.m. (RSN)
Game No. 6 - Seed No. 1 Duke vs. winner of Game 2 3:00 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 7 - Seed No. 2 Miami vs. winner of Game 3 6:00 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 8 - Seed No. 3 Maryland vs. winner of Game 4 8:00 p.m. (RSN)
Saturday
Game No. 9 - ACC Semifinal 1 11:00 a.m. (ESPNU)
Game No. 10 - ACC Semifinal 2 1:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Sunday
Game No. 11 - Championship Game 2:00 p.m. (ESPN2)
Read more: http://technorati.com/sports/article/duke-defeats-carolina-69-63-readies/page-2/#ixzz1niWCUNpa
Read more: http://technorati.com/sports/article/duke-defeats-carolina-69-63-readies/#ixzz1niVzm8KG
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