University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Go Awry Against Blue Devils
February 9, 2007 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2007
By Lauren Brownlow
Ivory Latta had no voice after Carolina lost 64-53 to Duke at home, and no explanation. Latta shot 3-of-20 from the field and 0-of-11 from the three-point line.
At the half, Latta was 3-of-9 from the field and 0-of-5 from beyond the arc.
She would not hit another shot the rest of the game.
"(Assistant) Coach (Andrew) Calder told me, `The next shot is your first shot.' That's what I kept thinking about, but it wasn't falling. My confidence didn't go down, I just kept shooting. I was open," Latta said. "They were shots I usually hit, but they just weren't falling."
But Latta wasn't the only Tar Heel to miss shots. When the No. 1 and No. 2 field-goal percentage defense teams in the league faced off, something had to give. Duke was allowing its opponents to shoot 32.5% from the field and Carolina was holding its opponents to 32.8%. Carolina was shooting 48.2% from the field (second in the league) and Duke 46.6% (third). Something had to give.
Unfortunately, it was the Tar Heels, as they shot just 27.3% from the field for the game (a season low) and scored a season-low 53 points.
"It's pretty simple; we've just got to shoot the ball better. I thought defensively, we wanted to hold them under 40% and we did, but we've got to shoot better. I don't think we've ever had a game where - well, Camille shot pretty well, but where the rest of the team shot as poorly as we did," Coach Hatchell said.
Alex Miller drove strong to the hoop and made a lay-up to tie the game at 47-47 with 7:49 to go in the game, and the roof nearly came off Carmichael Auditorium. Duke responded with an 11-0 run, and Camille Little scored her last three points (out of a season-high 21) with 28 seconds to go and to bring the score to 61-53. Carolina shot just 2-of-14 from the field the rest of the way, including 1-of-7 from behind the arc and 1-of-4 from the free-throw line.
It's not like the Tar Heels didn't have chances. In one particularly painful sequence, LaToya Pringle missed and Ivory Latta pulled down the board, and she missed, got her own rebound and Alex Miller missed. Erlana Larkins was fouled on the putback and missed both free throws. Even while starting out the final 7:49 0-5 from the field and 1-4 from the free-throw line, the Tar Heels also held Duke to just two points in that nearly three-minute span. Alison Bales scored
"I just couldn't hit a shot. I couldn't hit a free throw. It was like there was a lid on the basket," Erlana Larkins said, shaking her head.
Larkins had just four points. LaToya Pringle, the No. 2 field-goal percentage shooter in the league at 61.7%, shot 2-of-11 from the field (18.2%). The No. 4 field-goal percentage shooter, Erlana Larkins, shot 12.5% (1-of-8) from the field. Larkins, the ACC's No. 3 rebounder, pulled down 14 boards (six offensive) and the No. 9 rebounder in Pringle added 12 (five offensive), and the Tar Heels scored 15 points off 19 offensive rebounds. Three players attempted 2/3 of Carolina's shots (Camille Little, LaToya Pringle and Ivory Latta).
Latta attempted 30% of the shots herself and accounted her 56% of Carolina's missed shots. She has been able to carry the team so often this year, making game-clinching three-pointers against Connecticut and getting hot when it mattered against Maryland. Latta was the No. 2 three-point percentage shooter in the league going into this game (45.3%) and ranked No. 1 in made three-pointers.
It wasn't just Duke's defense, which was great. After all, Latta has already faced off against the No. 3 field-goal percentage defensive and No. 2 three-point percentage defensive team in the conference in Maryland. She shot 9-of-18 from the field and 6-of-10 from the three-point line against the Terrapins. In ACC play only, Latta has shot 50% from beyond the arc and averaged 4.3 made three-pointers a game.
"I guess it was just one of those nights. I was hitting shots usually. The last five games, I've been shooting pretty well behind the three. Tonight, like Erlana said, there was something around that basket and the ball would not go in," Latta said.
In the last five games, Latta has indeed shot well - 22-of-38 from beyond the arc (57.9%) and averaging 4.4 made three-pointers.
The Tar Heels are not used to having to come back in games, and it showed. Carolina was down 55-50 with 3:18 to go, and just nine seconds into the shot clock, Rashanda McCants shot and missed a three-pointer.
"Time and score situations at the end, that was not good. Of course we had not been in that situation, but that wasn't good down the stretch. But we'll learn from it," Coach Hatchell said.
Camille Little was the only Tar Heel to score from the field in the final 7:49, making a lay-up and banking in a three-pointer with 28 seconds left. Little shot 8-of-13 from the field, 2-of-3 from the three-point line and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. She had 15 of her season-high 21 points in the second half and accounted for 79% of the Tar Heels' 19 second-half points, but it just wasn't enough.
"I was just trying to be aggressive. I hadn't been hitting shots earlier, so I tried to take the slack up for my teammates and just do my best. We have to learn from this experience. Like I said before, we can't hold our heads down for too long," Little said. "We've got to get past this one. It hurts, but we've got to keep playing and move on and get better."
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
