WBB Travels To Durham For Matchup With Duke

DURHAM, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team will take a short trip to Durham on Super Sunday for a big game before the Big Game, taking on Duke in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. Tipoff at Cameron Indoor Stadium is 2 p.m. and the game will air on ACC Network.

UNC is 15-8 overall and is coming off an open date on Thursday. The Tar Heels last played on Feb. 4, when they fell to Virginia Tech in overtime at home. Duke is 15-7 overall, and both teams are 7-4 in league play.

Carolina swept the regular-season matchups last year, and Duke took the teams' ACC Tournament meeting. The last two games have been so low-scoring that the teams' combined totals didn't reach 90: UNC won the final regular-season game in 2022-23 at Cameron 45-41, and the Blue Devils won the postseason meeting 44-40.

Battle of the Blues
UNC and Duke are meeting for the 107th time in a series that dates back to the 1975-76 season, Carolina's second year of varsity competition under the umbrella of the Department of Athletics. UNC leads the series 54-52 after winning four of the past five matchups. Before that Duke had won five in a row and 12 of 13.
• UNC won both of the regular-season matchups in 2022-23, with Duke winning in the ACC Tournament matchup, the most recent game.
• The last time the teams met in Durham, UNC won 45-41. It was the lowest winning score in program history.
• In the last two meetings, the teams' combined scores have been under 90 points.
• Raleigh native Anya Poole is averaging 5.4 points and 5.3 rebounds per game over the course of her career but has significantly upped her game in matchups with Duke. In five battles with the Blue Devils, she's averaging 7.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. See page 6 for game-by-game breakdown of the Tar Heel veterans vs. Duke.

Up Next
With six consecutive games at home or against in-state rivals, UNC will go nearly the entire month of February without leaving the state. After the trip to Durham, UNC hosts Pitt on Thursday and then travels to Wake Forest next Sunday. The Tar Heels host NC State on Feb. 22 before traveling to Blacksburg, Va., to take on Virginia Tech on Feb. 25.

ACC Action Notables
Eleven games into the ACC schedule, Tar Heels have put up impressive numbers in league play:
• Alyssa Ustby has grabbed at least eight rebounds in all but one ACC game (she had four at Georgia Tech) and is third in the league with 10.9 rebounds per game in conference play. On the season, she's averaging 9.8 boards per game, which also ranks third in the ACC.
Ustby is tied for fifth in the conference in blocks with 1.7 per ACC game. She had a career-best seven against Louisville.
• Lexi Donarski was 13-29 from three-point range through the first three games of the ACC season, including six in the ACC opener against Clemson. She's cooled off since then to go 11-41 in the last eight games but is still shooting .343 from three in conference play and .352 overall. Her average of 2.2 makes per ACC game ranks seventh.
• Deja Kelly ranks fifth in conference games in assist-turnover ratio at 1.59. Her 3.9 assists per game are ninth in the league. She matched her career high with eight assists against Clemson and handed out six against Louisville.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lexi Donarski

Deja Kelly

Anya Poole

Alyssa Ustby

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics