Tar Heels Fall At Duke, 71-61

Thursday, February 6

Durham, N.C.

6 PM

North Carolina

Duke

Shayla Bennett scored a team-high 19 points in Thursday's loss at Duke.

Photo by: Dana Gentry

February 6, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina fell 71-61 to Duke Thursday in an Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball battle at Cameron Indoor Stadium. UNC outrebounded the Blue Devils 46-44 but shot a season-low 27.1 percent from the field to drop to 16-7 (7-5 ACC), while the Blue Devils improved to 12-10 (6-5).

Next up for UNC is a chance to avenge one of its ACC losses: the Tar Heels are back in action on Sunday, when they host Virginia Tech at 2 p.m. at Carmichael Arena. The Hokies handed Carolina its first conference loss of the season just over a month ago, 76-70 on Jan. 5 in Blackburg, Va.

Against Duke, senior guard Shayla Bennett led all Tar Heel scorers with 19 points. Freshman Malu Tshitenge scored 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting and had eight rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. Junior Janelle Bailey led the team's rebounding effort with 13 boards and added nine points.

UNC trailed by two at halftime after a back-and-forth first 20 minutes. Duke went up by five, its biggest lead of the half, on a three-pointer by Mikayla Boykin early in the second quarter but the Tar Heels tied the score with a 5-0 run in just over a minute. At halftime, the Blue Devils led 34-32.

Duke came out of the locker room with a 12-0 run. The Tar Heels missed 10 of their first 11 shots out of the break, not scoring until there was 5:53 left in the quarter, when Bailey converted a three-point play to make it 46-35. Duke, on the other hand, made seven of its first eight. The Blue Devils eventually stretched the lead to 16 with just under five minutes to play in the quarter.

At that point the Tar Heels managed a run of their own, reeling off nine straight points to close the gap to seven, 51-44, with 22 seconds in the period. Duke's Haley Gorecki, who finished with a game high 25 points, hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to halt UNC's run and give her team a 10-point lead going into the final quarter.

The Tar Heels cut the margin to six on a three-pointer by Madinah Muhammad with 4:01 to play but got no closer.

UNC, which came in shooting .736 from the foul line and was at .802 over the past six games, was 17-26 (.654) from the line.

The Tar Heels' 19-for-70 shooting night marked the second time this season that UNC has shot under .300, with the other time being in a 66-63 loss to Yale.