UNC's DeGraffenreid stars against Blue Devils

She had been called out by her coach, stripped of her leadership responsibilities and benched on more than one occasion.

She had suffered through more losses than in any other season during her three years in Chapel Hill. She had thrown up an absolute clunker against Duke in the teams’ last meeting — recording not one field goal.

But after it was all over Sunday, after the Tar Heels had at least partially exorcised a season which had seemingly teetered away long ago, there was Cetera DeGraffenreid, holding the game ball.

She had played perhaps her best game of the year, given the circumstances and magnitude. And when it came time to celebrate, to let loose a season’s worth of frustration and just plain rejoice, the junior carried the game ball around all of Carmichael Auditorium.

She high-fived every hand that came forward. She hugged past UNC players in attendance like Alex Miller. And she ferociously screamed, a far cry from the stone-faced emotion she usually displays.

“To finish off with Duke at home, we’ve lost some games at home that we shouldn’t have lost,” DeGraffenreid said. “That’s one thing we don’t do at Carolina is lose games at home. It’s a great feeling (to beat Duke).”

Mere weeks ago, though, her emotions were anything but pristine and peachy.

Who knows where or when that rock bottom came? DeGraffenreid’s not sure or just not saying. It could’ve been against Connecticut, where she scored just four points. Could’ve been against Virginia Tech, when she missed 10 shots. Or it could’ve been recently against Boston College, when the Tar Heels blew a fairly winnable game.

The latter seems certainly the most plausible, considering what the UNC point guard has done since. The Tar Heels have struggled, but her point totals have been 21, 15, 22 and 25. And against Duke, her trend of quality performances continued.

“This young lady took us on her back when we needed it and led the team,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said afterward, pointing at DeGraffenreid.

She certainly did. For after an extremely meager first half —DeGraffenreid had just two points — the junior exploded in the second stanza. The UNC coaching staff harped on DeGraffenreid to “take it to the basket,” and the guard responded.

Around the 17:00 mark, DeGraffenreid broke a full-court Duke press, whizzing around four awestruck Blue Devils before dishing to Waltiea Rolle for an easy layup. With less than 11 minutes remaining, DeGraffenreid stole the ball from Duke’s Shay Selby and raced downcourt for a contested layup.

And to top it off, she did all that with two taped up fingers on her dribbling hand. By game’s end she had 22 points, with an astonishing 15 coming from the free-throw line.

 “(DeGraffenreid) was the player of the game,” Duke coach Joanne McCallie said.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.