Feb. 24, 2006
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Tipoff
The second-ranked North Carolina women's basketball team (25-1, 12-1 ACC) hosts top-ranked Duke (25-1, 12-1 ACC) Saturday in the final game of the regular season. The teams are tied atop the Atlantic Coast Conference standings and are playing for the ACC regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
Saturday's game will tip of at 2 p.m. at Carmichael Auditorium and will be televised live nationally by Fox Sports Net.
The Tar Heels are ranked No. 2 in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll. Duke is ranked No. 1 in both polls.
North Carolina leads the overall series with Duke 40-28. The Tar Heels won the season's first matchup, 74-70 in Durham on Jan. 29.
On the air
Saturday's game will be televised live nationally by Fox Sports Net. Beth Mowins will be the play-by-play announcer and Debbie Antonelli will provide color commentary.
The game also will air on the Tar Heel Radio Network, which includes eight stations across the state of North Carolina. WCHL-AM 1360 in Chapel Hill is the flagship. Taylor Zarzour is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer and Jan Boxill provides color commentary. The broadcast can be heard on XM satellite radio channel 194.
Radio broadcasts and live game statistics also are available on the internet at www.TarHeelBlue.com.
Tickets
Tickets to Saturday's game are sold out. The game is the first advance sellout in UNC women's basketball history, with a capacity crowd of 8,010 expected.
Next up
Next up for UNC is the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament, which will be played March 2-5 in Greensboro, N.C.
UNC at a glance
2005-06 record 25-1 (12-1 ACC)
Current rankings 2nd A.P., 2nd ESPN/USA Today
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell
Career record 709-267 (31st season)
Record at UNC 437-187 (20th season)
Assistant head coach Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches Tracey Williams-Johnson, Charlotte Smith-Taylor
Media contact Dana Gelin
Gelin's phone/email (919) 962-0083/dgelin@uncaa.unc.edu
UNC athletics website www.TarHeelBlue.com
UNC ticket office (919) 962-2296, (800) 722-4335
Home arena Carmichael Auditorium (cap. 8,010)
Carmichael Auditorium press row number (919) 843-9509
Briefly ...
UNC and Duke are meeting Saturday for the 69th time. The Tar Heels lead the series 40-28 after winning the last four matchups. Prior to that, the Blue Devils had won 12 in a row against Carolina.
Saturday's game is worth one point in the race for the Carlyle Cup, the annual all-sports competition between UNC and Duke. The Tar Heels currently lead this year's battle 8-6.
The Tar Heels will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, honoring La'Tangela Atkinson, Jennifer Nelms, Jessica Sell and manager Nora Jabbour in ceremonies before the game.
UNC is 7-1 this season against teams ranked in the A.P. poll, with wins over No. 16 Arizona State, No. 8 Connecticut, No. 19 Vanderbilt, No. 25 NC State, No. 2 Duke, No. 24 NC State and No. 17 Boston College, and a loss to No. 6 Maryland. The Tar Heels were 6-2 last season against teams ranked in the A.P. poll.
UNC is 1-19 all-time against teams ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. The only win against a top-ranked team came against Duke last season.
The Duke game is the fourth of four consecutive UNC home games against ranked teams: No. 24 NC State on Feb. 2, No. 6 Maryland on Feb. 9, No. 18 B.C. on Feb. 20 and No. 1 Duke on Feb. 25.
With a win against Boston College on Monday, the Tar Heels reached 25 wins for the ninth time in school history. All of those 25-win campaigns have come in the last 13 years.
North Carolina sophomore Erlana Larkins and Duke freshman Abby Waner were teammates on the 2005 USA Basketball Women's U19 World Championship Team, which Duke coach Gail Goestenkors led to a gold medal last July in Tunisia. Larkins served as a tri-captain of the squad.
With the Feb. 17 win at Virginia Tech, UNC finished the road portion of its regular-season schedule undefeated for the first time in school history. The Tar Heels went 9-0 at opponents' home gyms this season, 3-0 at neutral sites. UNC's only loss of the season came at home, to Maryland in overtime on Feb. 9. The loss ended a 30-game homecourt winning streak.
UNC's 22-0 start to the season was the best by any team in ACC women's basketball history and the Tar Heels were the final undefeated team in NCAA Division I basketball in 2005-06.
Erlana Larkins and Ivory Latta recently were announced among the 30 candidates for the 2006 Naismith Award. Both also are candidates for the Wade Trophy. The two were listed among the 30 preseason candidates for the Wooden Award, and Latta is one of 20 midseason candidates.
Ivory Latta is one of 11 nominees for the Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation's top point guard.
UNC signee Jessica Breland (Windsor, N.C./Bertie H.S.) has been announced as member of the WBCA and McDonald's high school All-America teams. She will join the Tar Heels for the 2006-07 season.
With the Jan. 15 win at NC State, UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell became the fifth NCAA Division I women's basketball coach to earn 700 career wins. She is in her 31st season as a head coach and her 20th season at UNC.
Noting the numbers
Half the players on the UNC roster - seven of 14 - have led the team in scoring or tied for the team lead in scoring at least once this season. Those players are La'Tangela Atkinson, Heather Claytor, Christina Dewitt, Erlana Larkins, Ivory Latta, Camille Little, and LaToya Pringle.
As a team, Carolina is shooting .383 from three-point range, up from .317 last season. The school record for single-season team percentage is .363, set in 1992. Eleven of the 14 players on the UNC roster have made at least one three-pointer this season.
Only two teams - Arizona State (.560) and Boston College (.500) - have shot .500 from the field against UNC this season. Five more - Vanderbilt (.489), Clemson (.411), Duke (.431 on Jan. 29), Georgia Tech (.404 on Feb. 5) and Maryland (43.5) - have topped .400. Opponents are shooting .365 from the field against the Tar Heels.
Ivory Latta leads the ACC in free throw percentage at .850. Last year she shot .863, which tied the school single-season record.
With two three-pointers against Florida State on Jan. 22, Ivory Latta became just the 12th player in ACC history to hit 200 threes in her career. She now has 223, ninth in ACC history and fourth in school history. She has made at least one three-pointer in 54 consecutive games.
LaToya Pringle leads the ACC with an average of 2.46 blocks in conference games. Although only a sophomore, she now ranks sixth in school history with a career total of 98. Her current season total of 53 is tied for the fifth-best single-season total in school history.
Worth keeping an eye on ...
Ivory Latta heads into Saturday's game with 1,498 career points. With two points, the junior will become the 15th player in school history to reach the 1,500-points mark.
LaToya Pringle heads into Saturday's game with 98 career blocks. With two more, the sophomore will become the sixth player in school history to total 100 career blocks.
La'Tangela Atkinson needs six rebounds to pass Virginia's Heather Burge (1990-93) and move into 18th place on the ACC's career rebounds list. Atkinson ranks seventh in school history with 950 boards and currently has 357 career assists. With nine more, she'll move into 10th place on UNC's career assists list and become the only player in school history to rank in the top 10 in career rebounds and assists. She is the first player in school history to total more than 350 assists and 900 rebounds.
Camille Little is on a hot streak over the last eight games, averaging 16.1 points and shooting 58.9 from the field. Her overall average is 11.6 (47.0 percent shooting) and her average against ACC teams is 13.6 (50.0 percent).
Tar Heel guards Alex Miller and Heather Claytor are looking to break out of shooting slumps. Miller, a sophomore, is 0-for-13 from the field and 0-for-8 from three-point range over the last three games. Claytor, a freshman, is 0-for-7 from the field, 0-for-5 from long range over the last four games.
UNC has been outrebounded in its last four games and in seven of the last 10. In ACC games, the Tar Heels currently have a rebounding margin of just +1.3
UNC's statistical leaders
(Followed by ACC rank)
Scoring: Ivory Latta, 18.2 points per game (2)
Rebounding: Erlana Larkins, 6.6 per game (11)
Assists: Latta, 5.2 per game (4)
Steals: Larkins, 2.3 per game (T3)
Blocks: LaToya Pringle, 2.04 per game (T4)
Minutes: Latta, 30.6 per game
Field goal percentage: Larkins, .603 (123-204) (3)
Three-point percentage: Latta, .455 (70-154) (4)
Free throw percentage: Latta, .850 (85-100) (1)
Scouting the Duke Blue Devils
No. 1 Duke is 25-1 on the season and 12-1 in ACC play following a 93-51 win over Virginia Tech at home on Wednesday. The team's only loss of the season was to UNC on Jan. 29, 74-70.
Monique Currie leads the team in scoring with 16.5 points per game, third in the conference. She is averaging a league-best 18.9 points per game against ACC opponents. Also in double figures are Mistie Williams (11.8 ppg) and Lindsey Harding (10.8).
Chante Black and Alison Bales lead the team in rebounding, averaging 6.3 each. Williams is just behind with 6.2 boards per game. Bales leads the ACC in blocks with 3.04 per game.
Duke is coached by Gail Goestenkors, who is in her 14th season with the program.
The series against Duke
Saturday's UNC-Duke game will be the 69th meeting in a series that dates back to the 1975-76 season, North Carolina's second as a varsity program. The Tar Heels lead the series 40-28, with both teams having enjoyed long stretches of success.
UNC won this year's first game - 74-70 on Jan. 29 in Durham - and all three of last year's meetings - 56-51 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 24, 77-68 in Durham on Feb. 27 and 88-67 in the ACC Tournament championship game on March 7. Prior to that, however, Duke had won 12 in a row and 15 of 16.
North Carolina won the first seven games in the series and 15 of the first 16. The Tar Heels also had streaks of five in a row (in the late 1980s) and six in a row (early 1990s).
In addition to their home-and-home games, UNC and Duke have met in the ACC Tournament title game in five of the last six years. The Blue Devils won in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004, while UNC won in 2005.
The last time Duke and UNC played at Carmichael Auditorium was in the 2002-03 season, when the Blue Devils won 78-67 in overtime on Jan. 20, 2003. The game was played at UNC's Dean E. Smith Center in 2003-04 and 2004-05. Duke also won in overtime at Carmichael in 2001, 92-85 on Jan. 25.
UNC's last win over the Blue Devils at Carmichael was in the 1999-2000 season. Carolina won 73-64 on Feb. 27, 2000, in the final game of the regular season. The teams played at the Dean E. Smith Center in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Tar Heels vs. No. 1
Saturday's game will be North Carolina's 21st against a team ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. The Tar Heels are 1-19 all-time against top-ranked teams, with the last four matchups against a No. 1 team coming vs. Duke:
Jan. 20, 2003: No. 1 Duke 78, No. 8 UNC 67, OT (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Jan. 11, 2004: No. 1 Duke 79, No. 13 UNC 57 (Durham, N.C.)
March 8: 2004: No. 1 Duke 63, No. 9 UNC 47 (Greensboro, N.C. - ACC Tourn.)
Jan. 24, 2005: No. 12 UNC 56, No. 1 Duke 51 (Chapel Hill, N.C. - Smith Center)
UNC is playing in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup (rankings according to the A.P. poll) for the first time in school history. In this season's first UNC-Duke matchup, Duke was No. 1 in the ESPN poll and UNC was No. 2, but the teams were No. 2 and No. 3 in the A.P. poll.
Battle for the Carlyle Cup
Saturday's women's basketball matchup between UNC and Duke is worth one point in the race for the Carlyle Cup, the annual all-sports competition between the two schools. UNC currently leads this year's battle 8-6.
Carolina claimed the Cup in 2004-05 with a 15-11 tally, which included two points for sweeping the women's basketball series.
The competition is now in its sixth year. For more information, go to www.CarlyleCup.com.
Cramming Carmichael
Saturday's game at Carmichael Auditorium is the first advance sellout in UNC women's basketball history, with an expected crowd of 8,010. Tickets for the general public sold out in early February, more than three weeks ago. UNC held its first-ever women's basketball distributions for student and faculty/staff tickets during the week of Feb. 13. (Those groups are admitted free to women's basketball games, but for the Duke game, all attendees are required to have an actual ticket in hand.)
Saturday's game will be the third sellout in program history. UNC has had two previous sellouts at Carmichael, both against Duke and both with larger crowds due to formerly larger capacities in the building.
Previous sellouts at Carmichael Auditorium:
Jan. 22, 1999: Duke 93, UNC 71 - 10,000 (capacity)
Jan. 20, 2003: Duke 78, UNC 67, OT - 10,180 (capacity)
Among Carmichael upgrades over the past two years have been the addition of individual, chair-back seats in the entire lower level and the installation of new pullout bleachers, which seat slightly fewer people. With those changes, Carmichael's capacity was adjusted down to 8,010 from 10,180 prior to the 2005-06 season.
The largest home crowd in UNC women's basketball history was 10,278, for a Feb. 14, 2004, game against Duke at the Dean E. Smith Center, which has a capacity of 21,800.
