Untimely cold spell sends No. 15 UNC women to 92-73 loss to No. 6 Duke in ACC title game

GREENSBORO, N.C. – No. 15 North Carolina keeps going cold at the wrong times against its fiercest rival.

For the second time in eight days, a stretch of miserable shooting sent the Tar Heels to a loss to Duke.

The sixth-ranked Blue Devils routed them 92-73 on Sunday in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title game.

The game got away from North Carolina during a stretch in which it missed 25 of 28 shots. In last week's loss at Duke, the Tar Heels missed 19 consecutive attempts.

"We get in these spells where we're getting some pretty good shots, but we're missing them," North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said.

Freshman Alexis Jones had her second straight career game at the Tar Heels' expense, scoring a season-high 24 points, and was voted MVP of the tournament.

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt scored all 25 of her points in the second half for the third-seeded Tar Heels (28-6). Latifah Coleman and Walteia Rolle added 10 points apiece for North Carolina, which was denied its 10th crown and lost its seventh straight in the series.

Elizabeth Williams also had 24 points and Haley Peters scored 17 for the top-seeded Blue Devils (30-2).

Duke led by as many as 26, shot nearly 57 percent and outrebounded North Carolina by six to cruise to its third title in four years.

Williams reached double figures for the 19th straight time against an ACC opponent and set a league record by blocking a shot in her 65th straight game.

The most lopsided ACC title game since North Carolina beat Duke by 21 in 2005 capped an otherwise tight four days in Greensboro. In nine of the tournament's first 10 games, the outcome was in serious doubt heading down the stretch. But Duke never led by fewer than 16 during the final 17 minutes of this one.

Jones, who hung 22 points on North Carolina in a 65-58 win last week in Durham, put the Blue Devils up by 20 for the first time with a free throw with 17:21 left. A few seconds later, she made the Tar Heels look silly by stealing the ensuing inbounds pass and converting a layup to make it 49-26.

That had Duke well on its way to improving to 6-1 without point guard Chelsea Gray, the ACC co-player of the year whose season ended Feb. 17 when she dislocated her kneecap.

"They're probably a better team with Alexis Jones out there than they were with Chelsea Gray," Hatchell said.

The Blue Devils won by 21 points with her last month in Chapel Hill and now have beaten UNC twice without her. The two teams met for the ninth time in an ACC title game, with eight of those coming since 2000, and Duke improved to 6-3 in those matchups.

The Blue Devils also moved to 5-0 this season against their archrivals in men's and women's basketball.

In this one, Duke erased an early six-point deficit with a 29-6 run over an 11-minute stretch late in the half, a burst that included streaks of 11 and 14 consecutive points.

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