The Duke Blue Devils made sure there were no more remarkable second-half comebacks in the 2013 ACC Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Devils shot 57 percent from the floor \u2013 the best effort by any finalist since 1984 \u2013 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\u2019 excellence from start to finish muted the Tar Heels\u2019 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\u2019s semifinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an awful lot of fun out there today,\u201d coach Joanne P. McCallie said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have great players at Duke,\u201d McCallie said. \u201cNobody will ever know what we would have been with Chelsea at this juncture, and that\u2019s very sad. But Alexis is stepping up for us, and right now, there are things we can\u2019t control. We can\u2019t control the fact that Chelsea can\u2019t play. But Alexis is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019t seem bothered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a big deal, really,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were moving the ball well. It\u2019s easy to fit back in with all the poise we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt halftime, I speak to my team about us and what we have to do,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we were a little ticked off about some things we hadn\u2019t done in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Jones became only the third freshman to win MVP honors, joining Maryland\u2019s Deanna Tate in 1986 and Monique Currie in 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked,\u201d she said, describing her reaction to the announcement of the award. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting to get MVP, but I\u2019m excited that I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we\u2019re the runner-up is nothing to be ashamed of. Duke\u2019s a great team. I don\u2019t know how much better they could have played than they did today.\u201d<\/p>\n
2013 ACC All-Tournament Team<\/strong><\/p>\n First Team<\/strong><\/p>\n Alexis Jones, Duke (MVP)<\/p>\n Haley Peters, Duke<\/p>\n Elizabeth Williams, Duke<\/p>\n Alyssa Thomas, Maryland<\/p>\n Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, North Carolina<\/p>\n Second Team<\/strong><\/p>\n Tricia Liston, Duke<\/p>\n Tianna Hawkins, Maryland<\/p>\n Latifah Coleman, North Carolina<\/p>\n Waltiea Rolle, North Carolina<\/p>\n Chelsea Douglas, Wake Forest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Duke Blue Devils made sure there were no more remarkable second-half comebacks in the 2013 ACC Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament. The top-seeded Devils shot 57…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duke-blue-devils","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-82-id","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5276,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions\/5276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}