DURHAM — It was the first time freshman Diamond DeShields had ever played in Cameron Indoor Stadium. She had heard the legends — the noise level, the unforgiving fans — and she was trying to make an impression.
Thirty-one seconds into No. 17 North Carolina’s matchup with No. 3 Duke, and DeShields got that opportunity, an open three.
And she air-balled.
The fans, kind enough to remind her, lest she forget, started chants of, “Air-ball,” that rang through the arena. DeShields backpedalled to defense, smiling the whole way.
“I thought it was hilarious,” DeShields said, laughing. “I knew they were going to tear me up. I knew they were, but it’s part of the experience coming here. I’ll never forget this.”
At the end of the night, UNC (18-6, 6-4 ACC) walked out of Cameron Indoor with an 89-78 upset against the Blue Devils (22-3, 9-2 ACC). In what is fabled as one of the hardest arenas to play in in all of sports, DeShields set her career high in points — 30.
The almost-packed crowd of 8,210 surprisingly didn’t affect DeShields.
“Cameron is just historically a tough place to play in. I didn’t expect it any less tonight,” she said. “But what I was surprised at was the fact that I just, I didn’t really care, and it didn’t bother me one bit … I’m really proud of our mental toughness tonight.”
That mental toughness might be a result of a three-game skid the Tar Heels ended Monday night after losses to unranked Syracuse, Miami and Georgia Tech. In part, she also credited Anson Dorrance — UNC women’s soccer head coach and owner of 22 national championship trophies — who gave the Tar Heels a motivational speech Sunday in which he drilled self-reliance.
