Seniors guide Carolina to regular season finale win vs. Duke

Beat your biggest rival on your home court in front of a sell-out crowd? Pretty good for Senior Day.

The North Carolina women’s basketball team topped Duke 63-59 at a packed Carmichael Arena Sunday afternoon, celebrating the win then celebrating four seniors – Deja Kelly, Anya Poole, Alyssa Ustby and Alexandra Zelaya – in a postgame ceremony. In the final game of the regular season, the Tar Heels (19-11, 11-7 ACC) avenged a loss to the Blue Devils in Durham three weeks earlier.

Kelly finished with 18 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Ustby finished with 17 points, 13 of which came in the first half when she was 6-7 from the field.

In the first matchup of the season, Carolina led by 14 points late in third quarter but watched the advantage evaporate and fell in overtime. Sunday, UNC again took an early lead, up 17-7 after the first quarter, after shooting 53.8 percent to Duke’s 20 percent. The Blue Devils flipped the advantage in the second quarter, outscoring Carolina 24-13, including a 15-2 run, to take a 31-30 lead into halftime.

Neither team led by more than three throughout a tight third quarter and the game was tied heading into the fourth, 46-46. But the Tar Heels took the lead just over a minute into the period on a three by Zelaya and never gave up the advantage. They were up by nine after a second-chance bucket by Maria Gakdeng with 6:37 to play, 55-46, but that was the widest the gap ever got.

UNC led by five in the closing seconds but Ashlon Jackson was fouled taking a three-pointer and got her three anyway, hitting all three free throws to make it a two-point game, 60-58, with 15 seconds remaining. After a free throw by Kelly made the margin three again, Duke’s Taina Mair went to the line and hit one, but missed the second. The Blue Devils grabbed the offensive rebound and Kennedy Brown went up for the tie but Ustby blocked her shot, grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Kelly, who was fouled.

Kelly hit two free throws with five seconds on the clock to make it a four-point game, at which point the Tar Heels breathed a sigh of relief and started the celebration.

After shooting better than 50 percent in the first three quarters, UNC finished at 49.1 percent for the day, the team’s best since its win over NC State on Feb. 22. Since then, the Tar Heels had lost two in a row, road games at Virginia Tech and Boston College.

Jackson led Duke (19-10, 11-7 ACC) with 17 points and Taina Mair added 12.

As the No. 8 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament, UNC opens play on Thursday at 1:30, facing off against ninth-seeded Miami.

Notes:

• Carolina’s 12 steals tied the team’s high in ACC play. Ustby and Indya Nivar led the way with four each.

• With her career scoring total now at 1,823, Kelly moved into eighth place on UNC’s all-time scoring list.

• After hitting her first career three-pointer on Thursday at BC, freshman Sydney Barker came off the bench to hit another on her only shot of the day. She was one of four players to hit a three on Sunday, with Zelaya 2-3, Ustby 1-1 and Lexi Donarski 1-5.

• Attendance was announced at a capacity 6,319.

• The game was UNC’s third straight win over Duke in Chapel Hill, the longest stretch since Carolina won four in a row at home from 2008-11.