After Hot Start, UNC WBB cools quickly in Sweet Sixteen Defeat against Duke

Birmingham, ala. – To open what many planned to be a competition with a shortage of points between the North Carolina and Duke in Legacy Arena in Birmingham on Friday, the Tar Heels discovered an early score rhythm to open the Sweet Sixteen.

They spilled five of their first nine shots by attacking the Duke’s defense, and generating arrest on the defense, they led 11-0 after six minutes. But after the media died, it almost seemed that UNC was limited in his efforts to mark the ball.

“At that time, we were very confident,” Indya Nivar Said in the 11-0 advanced changing rooms of the team. “We were aggressive on the offensive. We do not held.

The North Carolina did not shoot on the field for 11 minutes and 38 seconds of half-chemin game time at the first quarter at the end of the second quarter. Meanwhile, Duke wiped the 11-0 hole to move forward 21-13. Once the Blue Devils have taken control of the game, the North Carolina has never returned to the head. The UNC obtained two years at the end of the third quarter, but he dragged 13 in the fourth before losing 47-38 in Legacy Arena.

North Carolina and Duke are still fighting in tight matches, but on Friday was an even more painful trip for the Tar Heels offensive. The team pulled 28.3% on the field – a few failures from the season of the season – and its 15 reversals resulted in 14 points for Duke. Only six of the 15 shots were assisted, and the 38 points that the team scored were comfortably low in the season. The last time the UNC scored less than 40 points in a match was in a defeat in January 2022 against Georgia Tech.

Alyssa Ustby scored a top of nine points, scoring the first time since February 2023 – a victory against Duke – that the Tar Heels did not finish the match with a two -digit scorer.

“We are both really very defensively, and I think we just couldn’t make it pass offensively”, ” Maria Gakdeng said. “Nobody really had a big match, so I think that was it. I think that in the games that we find a way to win, it’s always someone who came to us. And that didn’t really happen today, and the shots did not fall.”

When the North Carolina stopped, she had a hard time obtaining an offensive possession and going down the other direction. Duke caught 15 offensive rebounds on Friday, and although he scored only seven second chance points, these additional goods for Duke took precious time when the UNC tried to find a production.

An ankle injury in the second quarter in Gakdeng – the team leader in percentage of points goals and on the field – compromised the Tar Heels in their interior attack, especially on the boards. She was far from the ball at 8:11 a.m. in the second quarter when she got tangled with Reigan Richardson. Gakdeng returned to start the third trimester, but his mobility was limited. She only played eight minutes in the second half and finished with seven rebounds in her 17 minutes of playing time. Duke exceeded a 43-40.

The absence of Gakdeng forced UNC to go smaller, with USTBY at “5”, Nivar at “4” and three other guards constituting the rest of the range. And as a rebound after the rebound has moved away from the Tar Heels, its chances during a gathering.

“A child who plays on which you can rely for more than 30 minutes per game, now, you can rely on her for nine years,” Courtney Banghart said. “I know that she played (17), but six of them, you have all seen how she was able to move. So now you have fewer minutes. Now you ask Alyssa to play 40. You can’t even rest. Not only that, but (Gakdeng) is a rim protector, she can try it. Acting it as if it was” Next Man Up “, but when you lose Maria.”

Although the dashboard did not projection a big difference during most of the game, there were times when eight -point deficits looked like 20 points. North Carolina dragged out with its defensive efforts, holding Duke at 31% shooting for the match, but the challenge it was confronted by establishing a flow in attack on Duke’s defense added a layer of difficulty in any return attempt.

The opportunities at the edge also escaped the TAR heels because they pulled 9-23 on Layup’s attempts. The physicality with which the Blue Devils played contributed to difficult plans that the UNC had to take, although the team was little success by trying to finish with contact. The external difficulties also injured, because only three of the 11 attempts of 3 points on the team fell.

“I think Duke did a very good job to find out”, ” Reniya Kelly said. “So they cluttered painting. They played straight. We just couldn’t end the contact.”

The trip from Caroline du Nord to The Sweet Sighten was the first of the team since 2022, and the 29 games he won was the most since 2013.

Friday’s defeat is faithful to the themes of the previous meetings of the UNC with the Blue Devils in the past three years, the 40 -point proverbial race acting so often as the decisive factor. Despite a solid defensive performance, the Tar Heels did not succeed in this score brand during their end -of -season defeat.

“They are quite solid on the defensive, which makes us take more difficult shots and changes our looks that we are used to,” said Ustby about Duke’s defense. “But it’s the basketball game. Just because one thing doesn’t work.