Women's basketball: Duke ends UNC's ACC tournament with 66-61 win

GREENSBORO – The game-tying 3-pointer went in, and then it didn’t.

The ball, released from the talented hands of Diamond DeShields near the right wing, rotated through the air, hit the far side of the rim, ricocheted to the near side, then bounced out, cruelly.

“It went in,” DeShields said after No. 6-seed North Carolina’s 66-61 loss to second-seeded Duke in the ACC tournament semifinal here Saturday, “and came out.”

The three points would have tied the game at 64 with fewer than 10 seconds left. Instead, Duke’s Oderah Chidom pulled down the rebound, got fouled and cemented the Blue Devils’ win with two free throws.

DeShields, the conference’s freshman of the year and a finalist for the Wooden Award, carried UNC’s second-half offense Saturday, scoring 16 of her 25 points in the game’s final 20 minutes and providing baskets when the team most needed them.

In the first half, though, she struggled, and the Tar Heels (24-9, 10-6 ACC) nearly lost the game in the first two minutes.

Duke (27-5, 12-4) jumped out to an 8-0 lead, buoyed by a 3-for-3 start from the field and six points from senior guard Tricia Liston. The pace was fast, the Blue Devils were hot, and UNC didn’t score until 17:14.

“Duke does a lot of things well, and honestly, they did them well the past two times we played them,” DeShields said. “They were probably more energized.”

But soon the Tar Heels, who beat Duke in the teams’ previous two meetings this season, started the climb back, led by freshmen Allisha Gray and Stephanie Mavunga. Gray scored 11, Mavunga added nine, and at halftime, the score was tied, 31-31.

When the second began, DeShields — who missed 10 of her 14 first-half shots, including five from behind the arc — looked to score every time she touched the ball, which was often.

After she made her second consecutive 3-pointer with 17:22 left to put UNC up 40-33, forcing Blue Devils coach Joanne McCallie to call a timeout, DeShields stared down Liston.

“We didn’t really do much to stop their primary go-tos,” McCallie said.

With 8:08 left, DeShields received the ball on the right wing. She feigned a drive, stepped back, hit a contested 3-pointer over a Duke defender, backpedaled, yelled something to the defender, passionately, and drew a technical foul.

As she walked back to UNC’s bench, she pounded her chest. The message was clear: DeShields, who scored 30 and 18 in her previous two games against Duke, was going to do everything she could to carry UNC to the ACC title.

In the final six minutes, though, some of UNC’s possessions and shots were cavalier, and Duke took back the lead.

“We were a little bit wild with the basketball,” UNC coach Andrew Calder said. “We turned down a couple shots, and then we took a couple of tough shots.”

Seventeen seconds left. Chidom made two free throws to put Duke up 64-61, and UNC inbounded the ball. DeShields received it on the right wing, again, and pulled up.

“I said to her, ‘Take the shot,’” Calder said. “She’s won us a lot of basketball games. And in the end she’s going to have the basketball in her hands. She can shoot it or pass it, but she’s going to have the basketball in her hands. That’s my loyalty to her.”

DeShields shot it.

“I wanted it. I wanted the ball,” DeShields said. “I knew it was going in.”

It went in, and then it didn’t, and Duke celebrated.