North Carolina
Duke
No. 6 North Carolina Falls At No. 2 Duke, 97-63
February 20, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2003
By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer
DURHAM, N.C. - After a close call in January, Duke left little doubt in its second meeting with North Carolina who is No. 1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Iciss Tillis scored 21 points and Alana Beard added 19 as the second-ranked Blue Devils ran their ACC winning streak to 37 straight with a 97-63 victory over the No. 6 Tar Heels on Thursday night.
"We wanted to make a statement. Some people think we've been lucky over the course of the season," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "We wanted to prove to everybody that we actually do have some skills and we're a pretty good team."
The comment was a jab at UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell, who said the Blue Devils were one of the luckiest teams around after a 78-67 overtime win in Chapel Hill.
The Blue Devils (25-1, 13-0) have now won five straight ACC games by double digits since losing to top-ranked Connecticut on Feb. 1.
"This shows when we play great team basketball that we can play with anybody and we can beat anybody," Goestenkors said. "We learned a tough lesson with Connecticut, but it certainly made us much better."
Hatchell held up a stat sheet after the game and just shook her head.
"Since the Connecticut game they have been a buzz saw," Hatchell said of the Blue Devils, who have won their five games by 12, 27, 39, 42 and 34 points. "I think my team is in a comfort zone right now and we've got to get out of that comfort zone. Maybe this was a wake-up call for us."
Tillis and Beard combined to score 48 points in Duke's win against the Tar Heels (23-3, 12-2) a month ago.
And once again, Duke's defense was key, forcing 20 turnovers and blocking 13 shots.
"We just didn't come to play, it's pretty simple," Hatchell said. "You can't say it was one or two things. We should have stayed over in Chapel Hill. Tonight we weren't the No. 6 team - maybe 66th."
North Carolina came in with its highest ranking since January 1999, but lost its eighth straight to Duke, which needs wins over Maryland, Florida State and N.C. State to cap a second straight 16-0 ACC season.
"This was our most complete team effort of the season," said Goestenkors, whose club shot 54 percent. "There was great emotion on the court and on the bench."
Coretta Brown, UNC's leading scorer at 15.8 in ACC games, had another rough outing against Duke. The senior guard had just five points a month ago against the Blue Devils and didn't score in this one until there was 10:10 left and Duke up by 22. She ended up with five points on 2-of-11 shooting.
Nikita Bell led North Carolina, which shot just 36 percent, with 14 points.
The Blue Devils took control of the second top 10 meeting this season between the two rivals late in the first half, going on an 18-7 run for a 44-29 lead at the break.
eard scored six during the spurt, while Tillis had five, including one of three straight 3-pointers from the Blue Devils after they started 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.
"Last time against them we didn't feel we played our best basketball and we wanted to come out and set the tone," Beard said.
eard hit a bank shot and had a three-point play, and Tillis scored on a layup as Duke went up by 20 less than three minutes into the second half en route to snapping North Carolina's eight-game winning streak.
The Tar Heels saw their 12-game streak halted by Duke in the first meeting.
