As students across Tobacco Road prepare for Saturday's Duke-UNC game, many may be overlooking another rivalry bout between the two schools that's right on the horizon. The North Carolina women’s basketball team will face off against Duke this Thursday, with the Tar Heels (16-6, 7-4 ACC) looking for their third straight ACC victory.
Here are three things that UNC can do to overcome the Blue Devils (11-10, 5-5 ACC) in Durham.
Continuing offensive productivity
In Sunday’s game against Clemson, the Tigers scored 72 points but were unable to match the offensive prowess of the Tar Heels, who put up 86, their third highest-scoring game of the year, to get the win.
Two of North Carolina’s offensive stars in the game were junior center Janelle Bailey and senior guard Taylor Koenen. Bailey, who was just named ACC Player of the Week for the second time this year, scored 23 points in the victory over Clemson, going 9-16 from the field and 5-6 from the foul line. The junior has scored over 20 points in her last two ACC games.
Koenen had a similarly impressive offensive showing against the Tigers, scoring 26 points for the Tar Heels. In addition to going 11-17 from the field, Koenen went 4-8 from the 3-point line, which is tied for her second-highest 3-point total of the season.
The rest of the Tar Heels also provided crucial scoring against Clemson, with redshirt senior guard Madinah Muhammad and senior guard Shayla Bennett scoring 14 and nine, respectively. First-year forward Malu Tshitenge added to the Tar Heels' impressive offensive showing, scoring nine points.
North Carolina’s offensive productivity has led to its highest average points-per-game tally in the last four seasons at 75.8, and the team will have to keep up the offensive onslaught if it wants to match a Duke side that has scored more than 70 points in eight games this season.
