Blue Devils’ 3-pointers spoil Hatchell’s day

The script was written and ready to print.

North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell would win her 900th career game against archrival Duke in front of a packed Carmichael Arena.

But then No. 5 Duke (20-1, 10-0 ACC) stopped the presses in a big way with lights out 3-point shooting that would lead to a 84-63 Blue Devil rout.

“The first half, we weren’t hardly even in the gym,” Hatchell said. “I didn’t know what was going on with us. I was about to use all my time-outs up.”

The No. 11 Tar Heels (20-3, 8-2 ACC) didn’t have an answer for Duke’s 7-for-9 3-point shooting in the first half, including four from guard Chloe Wells, and Duke rushed to a 50-19 halftime lead.

“We came out really focused, I think, making all of the right decisions, making all the right passes and getting good shots off of that,” Duke center Elizabeth Williams said.

The Blue Devils shot 11-for-18 from 3-point range in the game, while UNC hit just three of its 12 attempts.

Wells, who averages 5.8 points per game, finished with a career-high 18 points on six 3-pointers.

Senior point guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt said the Tar Heels didn’t make the right adjustments to stop Duke’s ball movement.

“I don’t think we played with a lot of intensity,” Ruffin-Pratt said. “We weren’t rotating well off of the double teams, off the traps. We just weren’t rotating well at all.”

UNC rallied in the second half, storming out of the break with a 17-6 run. But trading twos for threes wouldn’t cut it for the Tar Heels, and Duke held at least an 18-point lead the rest of the way.

The Tar Heels’ options from beyond the arc include guards Brittany Rountree and Megan Buckland, but the two players shot a combined 2-for-8 from 3-point range.

Entering the game, UNC ranked ninth among the ACC’s 12 teams in 3-point shooting percentage.

“We don’t have the 3-point shooters they have. They made 11 (3-pointers). That’s 33 points,” Hatchell said. “We’ve got some coming in, and a lot of them were in the locker room tonight.”

North Carolina’s 2013 recruiting class features four of the nation’s top-25 recruits, including the top-rated wing, Diamond DeShields.

Until reinforcements arrive, the Tar Heels will have to continue to work the ball through Ruffin-Pratt to post players Waltiea Rolle and Xylina McDaniel.

But UNC won’t face another 3-point arsenal like Duke’s — not until it heads to Durham on March 3.

“Our rotations in the first half got us in trouble, and they were knocking down shots,” Hatchell said. “And a lot of other teams don’t knock down those shots the way Duke does.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.