Tar Heels Women Dominate Duke in Cameron Indoor

DURHAM, N.C. –The UNC Women’s basketball team marched into Cameron Indoor Stadium and handled the Blue Devils 78-62.

The Tar Heels offense looked exceptional, finishing with a season-low in turnovers (6) and shooting a blazing 45% as a team. 

Offensively, the Tar Heels were on another level tonight, with Duke having no real answer on how to stop them. Both teams were running a small-ball lineup, at times running an all-guard lineup with ball-handlers at every position.

This worked effectively for the Heels, allowing them to get effective dribble penetration to force a defensive slide, and then find the open shooter on the perimeter. 

For Duke, it was an entirely different story. They came into tonight’s matchup committing well more turnovers than they forced and tonight they had the same issue: the Blue Devils turned the ball over 18 times. This led to easy buckets on the other end, with the Heels scoring 27 points off turnovers (19 in transition).

These cross-town rivals haven’t played each other in nearly two years, with COVID-19 complicating this historic matchup. 

It started off as a back-and-forth battle, just a one-point game at the end of the first quarter. But after Kennedy Todd-Williams drained a deep jumper to beat the halftime buzzer, the Blue Devils looked deflated. 

It was just tough for Duke to get it going, with the absence of their star player, Celeste Taylor, clearly having an impact. Duke’s usual producers with Shayeann Day-Willson going 3-16 and Miela Goodchild (5-15 FG). Props to Duke for their gritty mentality, they never stopped fighting and by the end made the score respectable. 

UNC will go on to face a red-hot Wolfpack team on Sunday and Duke will be facing Louisville this weekend. 

Alyssa Utsby: 20 PTS(9-15 FG), 6 REB, 

Kennedy Todd-Williams: 15 PTS (7-11), 7 REB

Miela Goodchild: 14 PTS(5-15 FG), 5 REB, 3 AST

Elizabeth Balogun: 14 PTS(5-8 FG), 5 REB