Rematch against Duke set for UNC women's basketball set for Sunday

The No. 15 North Carolina women’s basketball team blew out Boston College 85-57 Thursday night, but a tougher test looms on the horizon.

And UNC’s 3-for-13 shooting from beyond the arc against Boston College doesn’t bode well for that test.

The Tar Heels (26-4, 14-3) will head to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday, seeking to avenge a Feb. 3 84-63 loss to the No. 5 Blue Devils (26-2, 16-1).

This time around, though, Duke will be without junior point guard Chelsea Gray, who averaged 13.1 points and led the ACC in assists and steals before she dislocated her knee Feb. 17.

Thursday in Miami, Duke fell 69-65 in its first conference loss of the season.

“I’m pretty confident,” senior point guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt said after Thursday’s win. “We started off really slow against Duke the first game, so they got going early, and it’s hard to stop a team once they get going like that — especially Duke, because they have a lot of shooters.”

Duke’s 29-3 first-half run in the teams’ first meeting effectively sealed the game by halftime.

And UNC’s sharpshooters have struggled of late.

Megan Buckland, a 36 percent 3-point shooter this season, has shot 2-for-20 from 3-point range in the Tar Heels’ last five games.

“She’ll get back to where she’s hitting them,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said of Buckland. “I’m not worried about that.”

Despite recent 3-point shooting woes, which included a 0-for-9 performance against N.C. State, Hatchell said UNC will push through the slump.

“We’ll keep taking threes,” Hatchell said. “Not maybe as many as everybody else will, but we’ll take them. We’ll take enough to keep the other team honest and make them come out there and guard us.”

To beat Duke, the Tar Heels will need to maintain the same presence in the paint that they did Thursday night, when center Waltiea Rolle scored 21 points.

“We’re going to be aggressive and take the ball to the basket. That’s really why we’re getting on the foul line,” Hatchell said. “That’s the way we play.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.