North Carolina Lady Tar Heels Look to End Season with Duke Sweep

North Carolina-Duke, Duke-North Carolina, call it what you will. It is a rivalry that will never go away. So long as college basketball is played, UNC-Duke will be one of its fiercest rivalries.

And I’m talking about the women.

In recent years, these two teams have monopolized the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Last year, the Lady Tar Heels defeated Duke, 86-73, for the championship. It was their fourth consecutive title, dating back to their 2005 victory over, you guessed it, the Lady Blue Devils.

In 2004, Duke defeated North Carolina, 63-47, for their fifth consecutive ACC title.

These teams have some serious history.

It wasn’t always like this, you know. Back in the days when men were the only ones allowed to play on the national stage, the women were relegated to intramural play, if that. Rivalries existed between dorms or sororities.

They wore ridiculous skirts and blouses, and most of the team members were not allowed to cross mid-court.

There were six women on the court for each team: two stationary forwards, two stationary guards, and two rovers, a guard and a forward, generally the best players on the team. They were the only ones allowed to run the whole floor, but they still had to wear skirts and blouses.

The game was played this way because these fragile creatures were thought to be too weak to play real basketball.

Oh, how things have changed. Today’s women run the court, sky for rebounds, drive the lane, and shoot from downtown.

They catch elbows in the nose, wipe away the blood and keep playing. They train and practice hard. They do everything the men do, and attract far less attention for doing it.

But I digress.

The North Carolina and Duke women don’t have the long history of their male counterparts, but make no mistake: This is one intense rivalry.

It’s only natural, after all, as natural as the men’s rivalry, only newer. Given the remarkable improvement of the women’s game over the past couple of decades, this matchup is worth watching, year after year.

On Sunday, the No. 9 Lady Tar Heels (25-4, 10-3 ACC) travel the eight short miles from Chapel Hill to another land called Durham, home of the No. 10 Lady Blue Devils of Duke University.

With a record of 23-4, 10-3 ACC, the Blue Devils are pretty evenly matched with the Tar Heels.

While the Heels have won seven of their last eight games, Duke has won six of their last eight, including a 75-60 loss in Chapel Hill on Feb. 9.

Duke shot an anemic 29.3 percent from the field in that game and was out rebounded, 45-31.

The game was more interesting than the final score would suggest, with Duke leading throughout the first half.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair until about the midway point, when Carolina finally pulled ahead for good, despite committing 29 turnovers on the night.

Tar Heel Jessica Breland pulled down an astonishing 23 rebounds to go along with her six steals, five blocks and 14 points.

Carolina’s Rashanda McCants led all scorers with 22 points, 19 coming in the second half, and added nine rebounds.

Sophomore point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid scored 15 points and dished out five assists for the Lady Heels.

Chante Black, double-teamed all night, led the way for Duke, scoring 13 points to go along with her seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

North Carolina has now prevailed in nine of the last 11 games in this rivalry. Last season’s finale resulted in an 82-51 shellacking, Duke’s worst loss in 15 years.

None of this will matter much when the teams take the court in Durham on Sunday.

Sure, these players know the history, and Duke is probably still stinging a little from that Feb. 9 loss.

Then there’s the question of settling the seeding for the ACC tournament. For the first time in recent memory, the teams will be fighting for a three-seed.

But these are two consistently well-coached teams. They understand, even if we fans don’t, that this is one game. Not a history of games, not a future of games. One game.

Catch it if you can.