UNC Basketball: Tar Heels destroy Blue Devils in regular season finale

The UNC women’s basketball program closed out the regular season with a blowout victory over the Duke Blue Devils.

The North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Duke Blue Devils in convincing fashion on Sunday afternoon in the teams’ regular season finale by a final score of 74-46.

In a game that the Tar Heels led by 18 points at halftime and refused to let up for even a minute in the second half, they absolutely dominated their arch-rivals in every facet of the game and set themselves up for a double-bye in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

They’ll need a little help from an unlikely source, the NC State Wolfpack, as a Virginia Tech loss is still needed to give the Tar Heels a top-four seed in their conference tourney. The Hokies host the Wolfpack on Sunday night in a matchup of top-25 teams.

As for the Tar Heels’ rout of the Blue Devils, it was an all-around effort from a UNC squad that saw four players notch double-digit points in front of a raucous Carmichael Arena crowd. Anya Poole and Alyssa Ustby led the way with 15 points apiece on a combined 12-for-21 shooting performance.

Kennedy Todd-Williams added 14 points and senior guard Carlie Littlefield notched her second double-double on a 10-point, 10-rebound (career-high) performance in her final regular season game. Fellow senior Jaelynn Murray had an impressive final regular season game as well with a sensational seven-point fourth quarter performance.

After scorching the nets last week, sophomore star Deja Kelly struggled through a 1-for-13 shooting performance (0-for-6 from three-point range) against the Blue Devils. Despite being ineffective from a scoring standpoint, Kelly did everything else right, pulling down five rebounds and dishing out four assists to zero turnovers. And it just goes to show how good this North Carolina team is when their best offensive weapon scores just two points but still wins by 28 points.

The Tar Heels shot 38.7 percent (29-for-75) for the game, 23.1 percent (6-for-26) from three-point range and 58.8 percent (10-for-17) at the free throw line. While they didn’t shoot particularly well in any aspect of the game, they dominated on the glass with a 51-35 advantage overall and a 20-6 edge on the offensive glass. They also assisted on 17 of their 29 made buckets and committed just seven turnovers to Duke’s 16.

The Blue Devils, 16-12 overall and 7-11 in ACC play, were led by 14 points from Celeste Taylor. Shayeann Day-Wilson, 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting, was the only other Duke player to score double-digit points. No other Blue Devil scored more than seven points for the game and they shot just 30.9 percent (17-for-55) for the game. They also hit just 4-of-22 (18.2 percent) shots beyond the arc and 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) at the foul line.

The Tar Heels, 23-5 on the season and 13-5 in league play, will now wait to find out their position in the ACC Tournament.

We’ll continue to follow that as well as provide complete coverage of their trek through the ACC Tournament next week. Check back with Keeping It Heel for that and everything on the UNC women’s basketball program.