Sweet revenge: 3 takeaways as Duke upends UNC in second meeting of ACC regular season

With the clock ticking down in the third quarter, Duke junior guard Ashlon Jackson rose up from behind the 3-point line. Her shot sailed over the outstretched arms of UNC’s Laila Hull and swished through the net to give the Blue Devils a double-digit lead entering the final quarter.

Jackson stepped back, widened her stance, formed a mask with three of her fingers and held it to her face. She didn’t budge until her teammates jumped off the bench and swarmed her in celebration.

That was how No. 16 Duke (22-7, 13-4 ACC) put an exclamation point on a dominant third quarter that catapulted the Blue Devils to a 68-53 home victory over No. 8 UNC (25-5, 13-4) on Thursday evening.

In that quarter, senior guard Reigan Richardson dropped 13 of her eventual team-best 23 points, North Carolina turned the ball over 10 times and the Blue Devils jumped out to their largest lead of the game.

“I thought that third quarter, in particular, we were able to create some separation,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “It was really that last few minutes of that third quarter. Ashlon hit the big three at the end to get us to double digits and we were able to hold on in the fourth.”

North Carolina had won seven straight games and boasted a perfect road record entering Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday. But with the Tar Heels missing two of their stars in Alyssa Ustby and Reniya Kelly, they struggled to close out the game.

Here are three takeaways from the contest:

Fournier on fire

Duke’s Toby Fournier recorded 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and added six rebounds in the first quarter, taking advantage of Ustby’s absence and early foul trouble that sent UNC’s Maria Gakdeng to the bench.

“I thought Toby got us off to an incredible start,” Lawson said. “Her presence and her aggressive mentality — I mean she was attacking… and I thought that really steadied us and just gave us a lot of confidence. When she’s playing well, we’re a good team.”

Even when Fournier slowed down later in the game — she only recorded six points outside of the opening quarter — she continued to make her impact felt in other ways. She pestered Gakdeng, holding UNC’s top scorer to eight points and contributing to Gakdeng’s five turnovers.

Then, with two minutes remaining in the game, the freshman drew the fifth foul on Gakdeng, sending her to the bench. Fournier smiled, high-fiving teammate Taina Mair before cashing both of her free throws to complete a 14-3 run for Duke.

This kind of dominance is nothing new for Fournier, who entered Thursday night leading the Blue Devils in points, field goal percentage, total field goals, free throws and blocks. She is second on the team in rebounds and, over the past six games, has averaged 16.3 points — growth Lawson credited to gaining more experience in ACC play.

“Toby’s a beast,” Richardson said. “She’s eager to learn. She’s such a fast learner. When she’s out there on the court, her confidence is undeniable…when she’s on a roll, we feed her any chance that we get.”

UNC struggles without Kelly and Ustby

North Carolina has been without Ustby since its Feb. 16 contest against N.C. State, which saw the grad student leave in the contest’s opening minutes with a left knee injury. Ustby is being monitored week by week, and the program has yet to provide any further updates on her expected return outside of coach Courtney Banghart’s postgame promise that Ustby “will be back soon.”

Without the Tar Heels’ leading rebounder on the floor, Duke had a 14-6 advantage on the offensive glass and recorded 13 second-chance points to UNC’s six.

The injury status of Kelly, who also showed up to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday donning street clothes, is unclear. Banghart said after the game that the sophomore guard’s availability is “minute to minute.”

Kelly usually handles point for North Carolina, and her absence was notable. The Tar Heels struggled to take care of the ball, recording 20 turnovers. It should be noted, however, that this was nowhere close to UNC’s struggles against Duke in January — a game North Carolina won despite committing a Banghart-era record 26 turnovers.

Nonetheless, the Blue Devils took full advantage of UNC’s haphazardness, cashing in those loose balls for 25 points off of turnovers.

“Obviously, I wish we could’ve gotten out of here with a win,” North Carolina freshman Lanie Grant, who led the Tar Heels with 17 points in her first career start, said, “but you turn the ball over as much as we did… this is the stuff we can continue to grow and learn from.”

Costly third quarter for UNC

Facing a one-point halftime deficit, Richardson went to work in the third quarter. She made three baskets in the matter of a minute — a baseline jumper followed by two triples — to push the Blue Devils out to a seven-point lead. North Carolina called a timeout, and a trip to the free-throw line from Indya Nivar cut the deficit down momentarily before Richardson answered yet again with an elbow jumper.

UNC soon tied the score at 41 after a Gakdeng post move, Lexi Donarski 3-pointer and Grant steal and stylish Euro-step finish on the fast-break layup.

But this is where the fatigue set in for the Tar Heels, who were playing with a much shorter bench in the absence of Ustby and Kelly.

“You take someone who runs the tempo of the team and you have her on the sideline [and] that rhythm is already disrupted,” Banghart said. “And then you have young guys in who are usually the fifth guy… going from your primary to your secondary [option] seamlessly requires a rhythm and a maturity that we didn’t have in our lineups tonight.”

After some back-and-forth play, the Blue Devils ended the third quarter with another push. Behind Jackson, Richardson and Oluchi Okananwa, Duke pulled off an 11-0 run to take a double-digit lead — which the Blue Devils held on to with ease to close out the game.

This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM.