University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Pain Can Wait
January 24, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Nikita Bell stood in the Smith Center tunnel looking quizzically at her thumb. She flexed it, frowned, and looked at it some more.
So it seemed only logical to ask her what had happened.
"You know what?" she said. "I'm not really sure. It's kind of swollen and has a big bruise on it. I can feel it now after all the adrenaline has gone away. I can feel everything. I can feel all the aches."
After the game, there was time for those kinds of injuries. After Bell had dropped in 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds. After she'd pilfered a game-high five steals and harassed Duke into 23 turnovers. After she'd beaten the Blue Devils for the first time in her career. After she and her teammates had come into the tunnel following the 56-51 victory and been mobbed by almost every member of the jubilant men's team, which practiced until 6 p.m. on the same floor and then hung around to watch the top-ranked Devils go down.
No one's going to make an instructional video off the victory, unless it's a lesson on grit. Duke shot 23 percent from the field, Carolina shot 29 percent, and the teams combined for 44 turnovers. At one point in the first half, there was the very real concern that at least one team might not make it to double figures before halftime.
But things finally turned chippy in the second half--as they always do when these two teams meet--as one of the suddenly numerous double technical fouls was whistled. That seemed to ignite the Tar Heels, as they took a 26-13 halftime advantage and blitzed the Blue Devils. How big was the spurt Carolina applied? At one point, even 5-foot-7 (well, OK, 5-foot-6...er, maybe 5-foot-5) point guard Ivory Latta was swatting away a blocked shot.
But it was Latta and Bell's hustle that keyed the run. Duke's primary offensive threat, Monique Currie, picked up her fourth foul with 13:46 remaining in the game. Thirty seconds later, the ball trickled freely toward midcourt with Currie and Latta in hot pursuit. Currie, it seemed, had a step on Latta and should've been able to secure it.
In technical basketball terms, it was probably a "loose ball." But it wasn't loose. Latta just hadn't gotten to it yet. She swooped in and cradled the ball, preserving another Carolina possession.
"I knew she was going to get it," Bell said. "Ivory is like Speedy Gonzalez. You might think you have a step on her, but she's a step ahead because she's quick and smart. She got in there and cut her off. At that point, we were thinking anything loose is ours."
"The tougher team won," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said.
That's exactly what happened. And after two disappointing road losses to Maryland and Florida State, the Tar Heels have now inserted themselves back into the Atlantic Coast Conference race. The challenge now is to bring the same intensity they brought to Monday's game at the Smith Center to all the remaining league contests.
That may mean more bruises, more bumps, and more injuries of uncertain origin.
Bell didn't seem to mind.
"Right now, I don't even care," she said as she headed toward a gathering of boisterous friends. "It's all worth it."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. His book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about the book, click here.
