Duke, Featured stories

Duke’s loss to Maryland hurts Devils chances for No. 1 seed

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Most experts figured that Duke had a hold on a No. 1 regional seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, even if the Blue Devils didn’t win the ACC tourney. But those experts also didn’t figure on the Devils losing their first game in the ACC tourney.

On the other hand, the Terrapins, who have beaten highly regarded Duke twice this season, may have earned their way into the NCAA Tournament even if they fall to the Tar Heels Saturday in the semis.

The Blue Devils are now 27-5 and at least have some extra time for injuries to heal. Seth Curry has been hampered almost all year by leg and ankle injuries while Ryan Kelly is just coming back from a month’s absence because of a foot injury.

Featured stories, UNC

Hairston has eight stitches after freak injury between his fingers

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It’s hard to be critical of UNC coach Roy Williams for PJ Hairston’s freakish injury.

Hairston, who had scored a team-high 21 points, bled profusely and had to have eight stitches after the ball got jammed between two fingers of his left hand.

The problem is that Hairston already had a jammed thumb and earlier in the game hurt his left shoulder. The Heels had the game wrapped up, ahead by 17, when Hairston was hurt with 4:13 to play.

In light of his other injuries and his importance to the team’s resurgence of late, it seems that it would have be prudent for him to be out of the game.

If he can’t go, or isn’t effective because of the injury, it could be a long day against Maryland, which is playing with a lot of energy and want to.

For more on the game itself, please click here.

Duke, Featured stories, UNC

TV announcers off base in saying UNC fans wanted Maryland

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As the Maryland upset win over Duke in the ACC Tournament dwindled down, the ACC Network announcers had some fun with an old, tired, trite angle – that Carolina fans hate Duke and vice versa.

Cory Alexander, color analyst, said, “The Carolina Blue faithful are standing up and cheering as hard as the Maryland fans.” Veteran play-by-play announcer Tim Brando chimed in laughing, “Be careful what you wish for Carolina fans.”

That’s cute and all but the problem is it just wasn’t true. The Carolina fans, while I’m sure they were enjoying the trouble Duke was having with Maryland, were not standing up, shouting and pumping fists like Terp fans. In fact, after Maryland’s Alex Len jammed in a dunk late in the game to put the Terrapins up by nine, while the Maryland fans were going nuts, viewers could see a solid bank of Carolina fans in the background who didn’t appear to move a muscle.

Besides, are they really going to cheer loudly for a team that is snubbing the ACC by leaving for the Big Ten?

Most Carolina fans, I’m convinced, wanted to play Duke again. After all, as Dean Smith always used to say, it’s difficult to beat a team three times in a season. The Tar Heels, had they hit free throws, would have beaten Duke in Durham. After the embarrassing loss on senior day a week ago, most Carolina wanted another crack at Duke.

It was lazy announcing to retread the conventional wisdom that Carolina fans always root against Duke (and vice versa). But they didn’t leave it at that. “A Carolina fan would tell you that they’d rather lose to Maryland than lose to Duke a third time,” Alexander said. “Absolutely,” Brando agreed. I don’t think Carolina fans are planning on losing to Maryland or Duke. That’s stinkin’ thinkin’ to be deciding who you’d rather lose to.

Carolina worked hard to defeat Maryland twice. The intangibles are with Maryland while intangibles would be with Carolina against Duke. In other words, Carolina would be more up to play Duke than they would be to play Maryland.

Featured stories, UNC

No. 1 Tar Heels baseball moves to 16-0 with win

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Top-ranked North Carolina equaled the second-best start in school history on Wednesday with a 7-2 win over High Point (7-10) at Boshamer Stadium to improve to 16-0.

Junior Colin Moran tallied three RBIs in the win with his third home run of the season, while Cody Stubbscontinued his hot stretch with a 3-for-4 performance with a run and a RBI.

Junior Shane Taylor (2-0) notched the win for the Tar Heels as he threw five and a third innings and surrendered just one run on five hits, while striking out three.

Senior Chris Munnelly threw two and a third innings of no-hit relief for the Tar Heels over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to maintain a six-run edge.

The Tar Heels scored in each of the first four innings to run out to 7-0 lead Wednesday.

Moran recorded a sacrifice fly in the first before Parks Jordan singled home a run in the second and Stubbs added a RBI single of his own in the third.

Carolina blew the game open in the fourth when they took advantage of a High Point miscue to score four unearned runs. High Point pitcher Ryan Retz threw away a sacrifice bunt attempt to plate one run before Mike Zolk added another with a sacrifice fly.

The big hit came from Colin Moran when he turned on a Retz offering for a two-run home run to right field, his third home run of the year.

The Panthers would push across single runs in the fifth and ninth to provide the final margin, but stranded 11 runners in the contest.

The win moves Carolina to 16-0 on the year which ties for the second-longest winning streak to open a year. Head coach Mike Fox’s Tar Heel debut in 1999 saw Carolina start out 16-0 as well. The best start in UNC history is 21-0 by the 2000 squad.

Up next for UNC is a visit from No. 29 Miami for the ACC home-opening series. The series is set to begin Friday at 7 p.m. with game two scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday and the finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC-G Coach Wes Miller to speak at Raleigh Sports Club

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UNC Greensboro Men’s Head Basketball Coach Wes Miller, in his first full season as the Spartan’s head coach, will be the speaker at Wednesday’s Raleigh Sports Club meeting. Miller also played basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, where he won a national title in 2005 under coach and mentor Roy Williams. He started 17 games as a junior and senior.

Nate Otto, a basketball player at Middle Creek High School, will be recognized at the Student Athlete of the Week.

The Forks Cafeteria cater a Southern buffet starting at 11:30 a.m. at the RSC luncheon at Highland United Methodist Church, located at 1901 Ridge Road at the intersection of Lake Boone Trail, just inside the belt line.

Annual dues for the remainder of the 2012-13 season will be $30. This is 1/2 off the normal membership fee so that we can encourage visitors to join the “best sports club in the nation.

The weekly attendance fee remains $15 while guest fees will be $25 each.

Duke, Featured stories, UNC

Duke women’s hot shooting is the best in a title game since 1984

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The Duke Blue Devils made sure there were no more remarkable second-half comebacks in the 2013 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

The top-seeded Devils shot 57 percent from the floor – the best effort by any finalist since 1984 – to build on a 15-point halftime lead and earn a 92-73 victory over No. 3 North Carolina in the 36th annual championship. The Blue Devils’ excellence from start to finish muted the Tar Heels’ hopes of repeating the second-half performance they displayed in wiping out a 14-point deficit at the break to upend No. 2 Maryland in Saturday’s semifinals.

“It was an awful lot of fun out there today,” coach Joanne P. McCallie said.

Perhaps even more encouraging for Duke is its 6-1 record since the season-ending knee injury to Chelsea Gray, its All-American point guard. In her absence, Alexis Jones has stepped in and has been brilliant. On Sunday, she became the first freshman to win tournament MVP honors since another Blue Devil, Monique Currie, in 2002. All she did Sunday was contribute 24 points and eight rebounds to a balanced attack.

“We’re fortunate to have great players at Duke,” McCallie said. “Nobody will ever know what we would have been with Chelsea at this juncture, and that’s very sad. But Alexis is stepping up for us, and right now, there are things we can’t control. We can’t control the fact that Chelsea can’t play. But Alexis is amazing.”

Forward Elizabeth Williams joined Jones with 24 points and eight boards and Haley Peters hit her first seven shots before missing her final attempt and fouling out. Her stints were interrupted by the foul issues, but Peters didn’t seem bothered.

“It wasn’t a big deal, really,” she said. “We were moving the ball well. It’s easy to fit back in with all the poise we have.”

Duke began to pull away with a 15-2 run that closed the first half and was fueled by defense. The Devils turned all three of the turnovers they forced into points.

As a result, they had a 39-24 lead at the break. On Saturday, North Carolina trailed Maryland 38-24. Enough of a similarity, perhaps, to make some wonder if history was bound for a repeat. McCallie, however, said she had no interest in numerology.

“At halftime, I speak to my team about us and what we have to do,” she said. “And we were a little ticked off about some things we hadn’t done in the first half.”

The Devils held the Tar Heels to 29-percent shooting in the first half and 31-percent accuracy after the break. Offensively, Duke followed a 50-percent first 20 minutes by connecting on 64 percent of its shots thereafter.

Jones became only the third freshman to win MVP honors, joining Maryland’s Deanna Tate in 1986 and Monique Currie in 2002.

“I was shocked,” she said, describing her reaction to the announcement of the award. “I wasn’t expecting to get MVP, but I’m excited that I got it.”

Both the Devils and Tar Heels now await NCAA tournament bids. The Blue Devils will host the first two rounds; the bracket will be revealed on Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

North Carolina (28-6) can also anticipate a solid seed in the NCAAs after beginning the season picked to finish in the middle of the ACC.

“The fact that we’re the runner-up is nothing to be ashamed of. Duke’s a great team. I don’t know how much better they could have played than they did today.”

2013 ACC All-Tournament Team

First Team

Alexis Jones, Duke (MVP)

Haley Peters, Duke

Elizabeth Williams, Duke

Alyssa Thomas, Maryland

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, North Carolina

Second Team

Tricia Liston, Duke

Tianna Hawkins, Maryland

Latifah Coleman, North Carolina

Waltiea Rolle, North Carolina

Chelsea Douglas, Wake Forest

Duke, Featured stories, UNC

Quick start for Curry, Duke sinks Heels

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In retrospect, Duke won this game in the first three and a half minutes. The Blue Devils hit their first seven shots to get ahead 14-0 and the visitors cruised to a 69-53 victory over North Carolina.

Seth Curry, who finished with 20 points, hit his first seven shots with the seventh giving the Devils their biggest lead to that point at 28-11 midway through the first half.

By the half, Duke was in control at 42-24 as the Devils shot nearly 70 percent from the field compared to 28 percent for the Tar Heels.

Carolina, which has relied heavily on the three, didn’t hit a three-point shot until there was just five minutes left. PJ Hairston sank a three to pull the Heels within 14 at 63-49.

“I thought we still had a shot when PJ hit that three,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “But we didn’t get stops after that.”

To read more about the game, please click here.

Canes, Featured stories

Hurricanes reach midway point with 6-3 win over Devils

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In their 24th of 48 regular-season games in this 2012-13 season, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-3. Jiri Tlusty had a three-point night with two goals and an assist, Alexander Semin had a three-point night with a power-play goal and two assists and Chris Terry notched his first-career goal in his NHL debut.

“They came ready to play, and we had a great effort from everyone tonight,” said head coach Kirk Muller. “We were able to use four lines and six D, which was great.”

In a span of 24 hours, Terry earned his first NHL recall and made his NHL debut. He topped it off by scoring his first-career goal, as he became the first Hurricane to score in his debut since Brad Fast did so on April 4, 2004 in a 6-6 tie against Florida. On the scoring play, he was able to coral a bouncing puck before sliding it five-hole on Johan Hedberg. “It was a bouncing puck. I knew he was down, and I was just trying to make a move. After that, I don’t really know where it went in. I just remember standing there and watching it trickle across the red line,” he said. “It’s kind of a blur for me after I scored. I didn’t really know what to do, but it was definitely an exciting moment.”

Terry’s parents and sister were among the 18,680 at PNC Arena to witness the 23-year-old’s NHL debut. Muller was impressed with what he saw. “That’s a goal-scoring goal. That’s the hands that he has and the knack he has,” he said of Terry’s goal. “I’m very happy with his game, and I thought he put a great effort in tonight.”

After suffering from an illness, Dan Ellis made 31 saves in his fourth win of the season. He also recorded an assist on Tlusty’s first goal, a stretch pass to find Semin at the far blue line. It was the goaltender’s fourth-career helper and his first since Dec. 17, 2011 with Anaheim in a 5-3 loss to Winnipeg. “He’s been playing well this year,” Muller said of Ellis. “He was sick, he came back and he played strong here tonight.”

The Hurricanes were one-for-three on the power play tonight, as Semin netted a beauty of a goal in the first period. With his head up along the near boards, Corvo found Semin alone in front of Hedberg. Semin, who posted his fourth multi-point game in his last six games and seventh this season, deked Hedberg before dumping the puck in the back of the net. The key to the power-play success? Simplicity – a pass, a shot and a goal.

Carolina netted three goals in the middle frame, marking the seventh time they’ve potted three or more goals in one period this season; they’ve yet to lose a game when doing so. The team has won five of their last six games, and they are averaging 4.17 goals per game in that stretch.

Next week, the Hurricanes will play three straight divisional games: two against Washington and one against Tampa Bay. The team holds a four-point lead in the division, but they aren’t looking too far into the future. “I think we focus so much better when we take it one game at a time,” Muller said.

Duke, Featured stories, UNC

Duke, Carolina to collide for ACC title after tough semi-final wins

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The North Carolina Tar Heels women’s team came from 14 points down at the half to defeat favored Maryland 72-65 to set up their eighth ACC title game appearance against Duke in the Greensboro Coliseum’s 14-year history as the event’s host.

Heels top Terps

Backup point guard Latifah Coleman, running the offense with starter Tierra Ruffin-Pratt sick and in foul trouble, scored 15 of her career-high 17 points in the final 6:04 to lead third-seeded North Carolina to the second-biggest halftime comeback in ACC Tournament history on Saturday, a 72-65 win over No. 2 Maryland in which the Tar Heels trailed by 14 at the break.

“We shipped her in from Mars this morning,” North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell opined after her team earned a spot in the championship game for the 15th time in the past 20 years.

Coleman, for her part, had no objection to the extraterrestrial explanation. Bugged by a quadriceps injury this season, she scored 34 points in all of February.

The comeback, as measured by halftime deficit overcome in victory, is surpassed in ACC Tournament history only by Duke in the 1995 semifinals against Virginia. The Blue Devils trailed 40-20 at the break that day and won 83-82 in overtime.

North Carolina did most of the heavy lifting in its comeback early in the second half with an 18-3 run. The Heels then failed on three chances to tie, and the Terrapins increased the lead back to seven shortly after Ruffin-Pratt picked up her fourth foul with 10:25 to play.

The Heels needed a heroine, and when Coleman drilled a 3-point field goal with 6:04 to play, the game was even at 52. And a trend had been established.

“Coach told me to be a leader,” she said. “I hit that first 3-pointer, got in a rhythm and didn’t stop from there.”

She then put her team up 54-53 – its first lead since the opening minutes – and delivered a runner down the lane with 3:44 to play to stretch the lead to four. The Terrapins’ Alyssa Thomas, who fell three assists short of another triple-double after getting one on Friday, made it 62-61 with two minutes left.

The Terrapins, in need of a stop, couldn’t halt the suddenly resurgent and confident Coleman, who hit again with 1:48 to play.

“She caught fire,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “We tried to switch up on her. We put Katie Rutan, our best defender, on her. Then we went with (Thomas) for size.”

Duke defeats Florida State

Point guard Alexis Jones contributed two assists, a steal and two field goals in the decisive stretch Saturday as top-seeded Duke broke from the second and final tie of the game and defeated fourth seed Florida State 72-64 in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

The Seminoles battled back after surrendering the game’s first nine points, and drew even for the first time on Yashira Delgado’s free throws with 5:18 left. The Seminoles made it 58-58 when Leonor Rodriguez hit a 3-point field goal with 4:40 to play, but Jones then began to take over.

Her no-look assist to Richa Jackson made it 62-58, and her steal and breakaway layup at the 2:08 mark highlighted an eventual 10-2 run that advanced the Blue Devils (29-2) to the championship game for the 11th time in the past 14 years and diminished memories of a quarterfinal exit in 2012.

“It feels good,” said Tricia Liston, who joined Haley Peters with game-highs of 17 points. “We proved we wanted to be here and wanted to win. Tournament play is fun, and going to the championship game is always exciting.”