University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Duke
No. 9 Duke Outlasts No. 13 Carolina, 66-58
February 27, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2011
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Jasmine Thomas scored 17 points and No. 9 Duke clinched the top seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament by beating No. 13 North Carolina 66-58 on Sunday.
Fellow senior Karima Christmas added 14 points, 10 rebounds and three 3-pointers for the Blue Devils (26-3, 12-2).
They won their third straight by building a 52-46 rebounding advantage, forcing 19 turnovers, building a 14-point lead after a 21-5 run - and then holding off North Carolina's late attempt to get back in it.
Italee Lucas scored 15 points and Chay Shegog added 14 for the Tar Heels (22-7, 8-6), the No. 6 seed for the league tournament later this week in Greensboro.
They were held to two field goals in a 9-minute stretch that coincided with Duke's big run, and went on to their fourth straight loss.
Allison Vernerey added 11 points and Krystal Thomas had 13 rebounds for Duke, which improved to 7-3 against Top 25 opponents and claimed a share of the regular-season title with No. 12 Miami. The top seed went to the Blue Devils for the second straight year and ninth time in school history based on their 82-58 rout of the Hurricanes on Feb. 3.
The Tar Heels made things interesting late, with Shegog pulling them to 64-58 with a three-point play with 1:29 remaining. Christmas and Thomas each hit a free throw in the final 1:02 and the Blue Devils came up with three straight stops to seal it.
Duke won its 23rd straight at Cameron Indoor Stadium, matching its second-longest winning streak there. The Blue Devils will get their chance to equal and then break the school record of 24 in a few weeks when they play host to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Christmas was determined not to allow her final regularly scheduled meeting with the Tar Heels to come down to a final shot, as the teams' previous matchup did. North Carolina won 62-60 three weeks ago in a thriller that wasn't decided until Waltiea Rolle's buzzer-beating block of a layup by Duke's Chelsea Gray that would have forced overtime.
Neither team led the rematch by more than seven until midway through the second half, when the Blue Devils finally came up with the big run that gave themselves some separation. That run was marked by a pair of 3s from Christmas, who started the burst by hitting from long range to put Duke ahead to stay and make it 38-37 with 16 1/2 minutes remaining.
Then, after a pair of baskets by both Shay Selby and Haley Peters, Christmas connected again to make it 53-42 and give the Blue Devils their first double-figure lead. Jasmine Thomas added a 3 from the corner 2 minutes later to make it a 14-point game.
North Carolina lost its third straight at Cameron. The Tar Heels slipped to 1-4 since beating the Blue Devils 20 days earlier, and this marked the third straight year that the rivals located 8 miles apart split their regular-season series.
