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the chronicle

sportswrapspecial edition, march 7, 2008

� | FRIDAY, MARCH 7, �008 SpoRtS WRAp tHe CHRonICle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, �008 | �

duke-unc101The Chronicle recaps the

last five Duke-NorthCarolina showdowns in

Cameron Indoor Stadium

v. U

NC

by Ben CohenThe chronicle

The last time Duke honored schol-arship seniors in 2006, the Blue Dev-ils lined up at midcourt after an 83-76 loss to north carolina, thanked the crowd and basked in serenade of “Thank you, seniors!”

Then-sophomore DeMarcus nel-son stood near his graduating team-mates. But as he sat in the visitor’s locker room after Duke’s 86-70 win over Virginia Wednesday, Duke’s lone senior didn’t quite remember the senior day tradition.

“i don’t have a speech yet,” nelson said, slightly worried. “Am i speaking?”

“Yeah, you’re speaking,” sophomore Gerald hen-derson said emphati-cally as he walked past the captain.

“Well, i don’t have a speech ready,” said nel-son, playing his last game in cameron in-door Stadium Saturday night. “i’m just going to say whatever comes to me.”

he may not be sure about his speaking plans, but nelson’s per-formances in his past three home rivalry games have said plenty.

As a fresh-man, nelson tallied his s e c o n d - m o s t minutes of the year in Duke’s last win over the Tar heels in cam-eron. he scored 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting in

29 minutes, and followed his first Duke-Unc home experience with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting the next year.

But in that game—and in last year’s contest, in which nelson scored 12 points—north carolina came out on top, sending the sulk-ing cameron crazies back to their dorms rather than Main West quad-rangle to burn benches.

This time around, nelson said he has prioritized the Duke win, and the bragging rights and Acc title

that can come with it, over per-sonal performances.

“That’s my biggest fo-cus,” nelson said. “As long as i can lead my team to

the win, i don’t re-ally care how i

perform. “it’s going

to be a big-time game. it’ll be e m o t i o n -al. i’ll try to keep my emo-tions in check.”

no mat-ter how

he plays, or whether Duke wins, nelson will take center-stage after the

game. in 2006, lee Melchionni solic-

ited a roar from the Duke faithful when he said that de-

spite the Blue Devils’ loss, the season was “nowhere near over.” nelson may not be able to

recreate that type of inspira-tional message. But he can do

something that J.J. redick, Shel-den Williams and Melchionni couldn’t: secure a win in their last home game.

And if he can do that, nelson’s game would speak louder than words.

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geraldhenderson

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demarcusnelson

15.5

11

3

1.9

5.8

3.3

POINTS ASSISTS REBS POINTS ASSISTS REBS

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E

POINTS FT%REBS

23.3

22.2

10.4

11.483

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Blue Devils aim to right ship in postseason play

DUKE vs. FSUGreensboro Coliseum • TONIGHT

8 p.m. • ACC Select

SARA GUERRERO/ChROniClE FilE PhOTO

Senior Wanisha Smith hopes to provide the leadership Duke needs to advance deep into the Tournament.

by Sabreena MerchantThe chronicle

Sometimes it takes a slap in the face or a punch in the gut to serve as a wake-up call.

As third-seeded Duke (21-8, 10-4 in the Acc) begins the Acc Tournament Friday night against Florida State at the Greensboro coliseum, the Blue Devils can only hope that the sting of their most lopsided defeat in 15 years can provide the spark that the team has been missing—and perhaps propel Duke to a conference tournament title.

“The players would do good to get ticked off at each other,” head coach Joanne P. Mccallie said. “i don’t think it’s a ‘Kumbaya—let’s all hold hands’ thing. i think you have to get ticked off.”

And after Sunday’s 31-point loss to the Tar heels, a game in which Mccallie said her team played without pride for stretch-es, the Blue Devils have plenty to be “ticked off” about. But Duke can use that to its ad-vantage now that it’s the postseason.

The Blue Devils said that one of their most glaring weaknesses has been incon-sistent leadership. But Sunday’s game forced Duke’s most experienced players to re-evaluate their contributions on and off the court.

“[leaders] need to step up, take this team up,” said chante Black, who was named to the All-Acc second team Mon-day. “[Me], Abby [Waner] and [Wanisha Smith]—we need to make sure we’re doing what we should be doing.... We haven’t been vocal. When we get down in situations, if one of us doesn’t step up, then it goes downhill. All three of us need to step up for us to win this whole thing. All three.”

The collective play of Black, Waner and Smith will be integral to the team’s ad-

vancement through the Acc Tournament. The Blue Devils have demonstrated a lack of teamwork on offense, resulting in just 15.2 assists per game in contrast to 18.7 turnovers. Mccallie said that Duke needs to come together on the offensive end and make the right team plays instead of shoot-ing individual shots.

When the Blue Devils have shown the capacity to move the ball on offense and put up points, it has not always coincided with strong play on the defensive end, making consistency another pressing issue for this young squad.

“[it comes down to] putting it all to-gether,” said Waner, who earned third-team All-Acc accolades. “i think it’s being able to play a full 40 minutes in every category, every stat, all the intangibles—which we’ve shown, just at various times.”

With the Blue Devils’ postseason slate beginning tonight, however, now is the time to bring everything together. Duke will face no. 6 seed Florida State (17-12, 7-7), a team they defeated handily during the regular season 70-38. But the Semi-noles, just like the Blue Devils, hope to turn the tables in a new season.

nevertheless, Duke expects to continue playing through Sunday, even if it means putting away no. 2 seed Maryland and no. 1 seed north carolina after losing to each team twice this year. The regular sea-son is over, and the Blue Devils are look-ing to prove that they still belong among the nation’s elite by bringing home some hardware.

“i know we’ve lost more games this season than we have in the past, but that doesn’t mean anything,” Waner said. “We still have championship expectations. The day that we start to lower those, it’s no lon-ger Duke Basketball.”

Senior SpoTlighT the last homestand

by Tim BrittonThe chronicle

Two schools, separated by a mere eight miles and a shade of blue. Two schools, together again in the top five of the country. Two schools, their histories intertwined with a montage of magical mo-ments, intense battles and legend-ary performances.

Saturday night, at 9 p.m. at cam-eron indoor Stadium, their fates will once again be inexorably linked, when no. 5 Duke (26-3, 13-2 in the Acc) hosts no. 1 north carolina (28-2, 13-2) for the outright confer-ence regular-season title.

As important as the game is, the schools will keep the proper per-spective and honor late north car-olina student body president eve carson with a moment of silence before the tip.

it is the first time the season fi-nale between the two will decide the outright Acc crown since 1991, when the Blue Devils upset the Tar heels in chapel hill en route to the program’s first-ever national title.

Saturday’s meeting also marks the first time since 1998 that both teams are in the top five for the regular-sea-son finale. As a result, a no. 1 seed in

the ncAA Tournament likely awaits the winner.

“We have a championship game Saturday, then we have the Acc Tournament playing for a cham-pionship, then we have a regional championship and a national cham-pionship,” senior captain DeMarcus nelson said. “This is the time of the year when we can come together and be excited about playing.”

The lone senior on the roster, nel-son is the only Duke player to have beaten north carolina on the Blue Devils’ home floor. As a freshman in 2005, the wing had a breakout per-formance against the Tar heels, scor-ing 16 points in Duke’s 71-70 win.

Since then, however, north caro-lina is 2-0 in cameron, scoring a stun-ning 83-76 win over the top-ranked Blue Devils in 2006 before coming back last season for a 79-73 victory.

But Duke has spent an entire sea-son exorcising the demons of the past. The Blue Devils have avenged each one of their conference losses from a season ago, capped by Wednesday’s win at Virginia—the site of last year’s most heartbreaking Acc defeat.

The victory over the cavaliers was Duke’s fourth in a row following consecutive losses in mid-February. in those games at Wake Forest and Miami, the Blue Devils turned the ball over 45 times and surrendered

an average of 91 points.During their winning streak,

Duke has turned the ball over a to-tal of just 42 times, and Wednesday night in charlottesville, the Blue Devil defense suffocated Virginia star guard Sean Singletary into a 6-of-16 performance from the field.

nobody in the Acc and perhaps even the country, though, has as much momentum as north caro-lina. The Tar heels visit cameron riding a seven-game winning streak that dates back to the 89-78 loss to the Blue Devils Feb. 6. All-every-thing junior Tyler hansbrough has carried north carolina during the stretch, much of which was played without point guard Ty lawson,

hansbrough averaged 29 points and 10.7 rebounds per game with lawson out of the lineup, includ-ing a 28-point, 18-rebound per-formance in the loss to Duke. The junior has seemed to save his best for the Blue Devils throughout his career. in five games against Duke, hansbrough averages 22.2 points and 11.4 rebounds per contest.

lawson returned to action for Unc last Saturday against Boston col-lege. The sophomore has come off the bench in the two games since his return, and he and senior Quentin Thomas have split the minutes evenly.

“The difficulty just comes in that

nelson looks to make statement with win

wEiyi TAn/ChROniClE FilE PhOTO

Sophomore gerald henderson, who scored 12 points in 29 minutes against UnC in Chapel hill last month, hopes to lead Duke to another win.

tylerhansbrough

thebreakdown

THE FRONTCOURT

vs.

Demarcus Nelson

Marcus Ginyard

15.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg 7.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg

vs.

Kyle Singler

Deon Thompson

14.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg 8.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg

THE BACKCOURT

vs.

GregPaulus

QuentinThomas

10.9 ppg, 3.4 apg 3.4 ppg, 3.0 apg

vs.

Gerald Henderson

Wayne Ellington

12.6 ppg, 1.8 apg 16,4 ppg, 2.1 apg

Thomas has improved steadily throughout the sea-son, becoming more comfortable with his starting role. Paulus, however, has been extremely reliable with his ability to run the offense and hit critical three pointers. Ellington struggled mightily in the game in Chapel Hill and should bounce back. But Henderson has played superbly as of late in deal-ing with his wrist injury.

vs.

LanceThomas

TylerHansbrough

4.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg 23.3 ppg, 10.4 rpg

With Hansbrough leading the way as a National Player of the Year Candidate, the Tar Heels have a clear advantage down low and crashing the glass. While Duke’s smaller frontcourt has done a better job rebounding lately, it is still at a distinct disadvantage.

Led by Jon Scheyer, who averages 11.2 points per game, Duke’s bench has been extremely productive all year and is very explosive. The Tar Heels, however, have an equally deep rotation bolstered by the return of Ty Lawson. Although Lawson is not starting, look for him to get into the game early and make his presence felt.

With Lawson, the Tar Heels are a completely dif-ferent team and should eliminate a lot of the turn-overs that plagued them the first time they played Duke. The Blue Devils, meanwhile, have a major ad-vantage playing at home and coming off a solid vic-tory on the road at Virginia. Duke’s high three-point shooting percentage and the raucous home crowd will ultimately make the difference in the game.

ADVANTAGE: DUKE

ADVANTAGE: UNC

THE BENCH

THE CALL

ADVANTAGE: UNC

PREDICTION: DUKE 88, UNC 84

FEBRUARY 5, 2003 (W)No. 9 Duke 83, UNC 74

MARCH 5, 2004 (W)No. 3 Duke 70, No. 14 UNC 65

FEBRUARY 9, 2005 (W)No. 7 Duke 71, No. 2 UNC 70

MARCH 4, 2006 (L)No. 13 UNC 83, No. 1 Duke 76

FEBRUARY 7. 2007 (L)No. 5 UNC 79, No. 16 Duke 73

M. BBAll from TC page 1

—compiled by Archith Ramkumar

RIVALRY FAST FACTS• Biggest Duke win: 104-69, February 29, 1964• Biggest UNC win: 55-19, March 5, 1921• UNC leads Duke 127-97 all-time• Duke is 38-32 all-time in Cameron

Where they finished that year:• DUKE, lost in Sweet 16• UNC, lost in NIT quarterfinals

Where they finished that year:• DUKE, lost in Final 4• UNC, lost in NCAA 2nd round

Where they finished that year:• DUKE, lost in Sweet 16• UNC, NCAA Champions

Where they finished that year:• DUKE, lost in Sweet 16• UNC, lost in NCAA 2nd round

Where they finished that year:• DUKE, lost in NCAA 1st round• UNC, lost in Elite 8

12.612

1.8

2.34.8

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BY THE NUMBERSA graphical breakdown of tonight’s stars and how they have performed this season versus how they have done in their careers against their crosstown rivals.

PhOTO illUSTRATiOn by mAyA RObinSOn/ThE ChROniClE

� | FRIDAY, MARCH 7, �008 SpoRtS WRAp tHe CHRonICle FRIDAY, MARCH 7, �008 | �

DUKE vs. LOYOLA Baltimore • Saturday • 2 p.m.

Duke reunites with ex-teammate, looks to avenge loss

lARSA Al-OmAiShi/ChROniClE FilE PhOTO

Attackman Matt Danowski and the Blue Devils face former teammate Collin Finnerty for the first time Saturday.

by Joe DrewsThe chronicle

When the second-ranked Blue Devils travel to Baltimore, they won’t just be facing one of three teams to beat them last year, loyola.

And they won’t just be going to the city where they lost the national championship game last May either.

As Duke squares off against the Grey-hounds (2-1) Saturday at 2 p.m., it will also mark the first time the Blue Devils (4-0) face former teammate collin Finnerty since he transferred to the Maryland col-lege last year.

“it’s weird anytime you play against a transfer,” head coach John Danowski said. “You see that guy that you were buddies with and hung out at the Bryan center or hung out at cameron [with], and all of a sudden he’s wearing another jersey. it’s going to seem strange, but once that first whistle blows and once the guys get a glimpse of him pre-game, i think that the guys will settle down and just play.”

Finnerty, however, isn’t a typical transfer. The formerly-indicted redshirt sophomore enrolled at loyola in the fall after a tumul-tuous year under the national microscope. Despite the difficult circumstances, he has fit in well with the no. 13 Greyhounds, starting in all three games and scoring two goals this season.

“i couldn’t imagine what that would be like, to start over fresh like that after build-ing bonds with guys,” attackman Matt Dan-owski said. “he was here for two years and then having to start over fresh, especially

after what he went through—that would be really tough. But he’s a great kid and he’s a special person, so he can handle a situation like that.”

Several of the Duke players talk to Finnerty on a regular basis, and they are happy he found a place to play where he isn’t held to any kind of a double standard. They know, however, that Finnerty will not be a friend once the game starts.

They also know that he is a dangerous player and that he may have some extra motivation against his old team.

“Until the game’s over, collin’s just no. 20 on the other team,” senior Brad ross said. “We’re going to handle him the same way we would cover any good attackman.... i’m sure he’s going to want to put one past us, so we’ll have to tighten up.”

Aside from containing their former teammate, the Blue Devils will have to stop a team that is not intimidated by Duke, according to John Danowski. The Greyhounds have had previous success against Duke—including their 8-7 victory last year—and have had all week to pre-pare for this game.

The mentality of concentrating on their opponent as a whole, and not just Finnerty, should also help keep the Blue Devils from getting caught up in the emotions associated with playing against their former teammate.

“its Duke vs. loyola. it’s not Duke vs. collin Finnerty,” John Danowski said. “ev-erybody loves him and everybody wants to see him be successful certainly in every-thing that he does—except hopefully he doesn’t score too many goals against us.”

No. 3 Blue Devils take on TigersWoMen’S lACroSSe

zAChARy TRACER/ChROniClE FilE PhOTO

Junior midfielder Carolyn Davis is the reigning ACC player of the Week.

by Taylor FieldThe chronicle

Duke (5-0) looks to continue its undefeated season against no. 7 Princeton Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Prince-ton, n.J. The Tigers (2-0) have faced only two opponents this season, neither in the top 10, and the Blue Devils are running with the momentum they garnered in their 14-13 victory over no. 5 Maryland.

But no. 3 Duke still has some things to work on—namely, ground balls.

“coming off Maryland, we got killed off the draw,” se-nior defender Sarah Kirchhofer said. “We need to help each other coming up with them and with ground balls.”

The Terrapins topped Duke 22-7 in draw controls, but the Blue Devils still managed to prevail. Against Princeton, Duke will look to junior carolyn Davis and freshman de-fender emma hamm, both named national players of the week after Saturday’s win, to step up and take charge.

Davis, also the Acc Player of the Week, scored two goals in the Blue Devils’ 16-14 victory over the Tigers last year, and currently leads the team with 19 goals and 27 points.

“one of carolyn’s strengths is that she’s mentally tough,” head coach Kerstin Kimel said. “having her in a position of leadership on our offense sets a really nice tone for us.”

hamm, womenslax.com’s national rookie of the Week, had three of Duke’s seven draw controls against the Terrapins. With 14 on the season, the freshman’s number is second only to senior Allie Johnson’s 18.

Duke hopes to use its experience against relatively un-tested Princeton, a team that has only topped no. 14 Johns hopkins and rutgers this season. The Blue Devils’ schedule, on the other hand, has been significantly more challenging.

“every game this season we’ve gotten better in one area or a couple areas,” Kimel said. “We’re taking one game at a time trying to get better each game.... So far, so good.”

Youth and depth are the other two factors that Duke is depending on to top the Tigers. Three freshmen—Sarah Bullard, christie Kaestner and hamm—are among the top Blue Devil scorers, and 13 have recorded points this sea-son. Although Princeton will likely target Davis as the main threat on offense, Duke has planned its counterattack.

“What’s nice is it’s going to be hard for them to key in

BASeBAll

Duke battles Tar Heels

by Tim BrittonThe chronicle

While their men’s basketball teams prepare for a Sat-urday night showdown in cameron, Duke and north carolina will also face off on the diamond this weekend.

The Blue Devils (12-0) and second-ranked Tar heels (8-1) will open the Acc season with a three-game series, starting today at 3 p.m. at Jack coombs Field.

This rivalry hasn’t been quite as competitive as the one on the hardwood, with the Tar heels win-ning 14 of the last 15 in Durham and 28 of 32 overall against their Tobacco road rivals.

Duke was able to steal one in chapel hill a season ago, however, and is trying to build on the momentum of a perfect start to the sea-son. it’s been 12 up, 12 down for the Blue Devils in the non-conference slate, and the squad will look to continue that streak into conference play.

“We’re just really excited,” head coach Sean Mcnal-ly said. “We’re excited to come through the non-con-ference part of this the way we have and just excited to play north carolina. it’s a great program, and Friday can’t get here soon enough.”

Duke is coming off its most exciting win of the season, as Gabriel Saade’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Blue Devils past Valparaiso, 5-4.

“We’ve been working very hard, and everything has been preparation to starting the Accs and being one of the top contenders in the conference this year. And of course, [Wednesday] was a must win for us because of momentum,” Saade said. “We’re going to battle, we’re going to take two-out-of-three from Unc.There’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

FRI-SUNJack Coombs Field

vs.

on just one or two people,” Kimel said. “They will probably try to on carolyn, but we’re making some changes in our of-fense so it isn’t as predictable.”

Mostly, however, the Blue Devils have focused on internal improvements rather than what the Tigers will bring to the game—especially since they have been on limited display.

“We just have been focusing on ourselves,” junior midfield-er Jess Adam said. “We’ll be able to benefit from our experi-ence against higher-caliber teams in terms of our strategy.”

The Tigers enter the game coming off of a 16-8 rout of rutgers and seeking revenge for their two-goal loss last year.

“They’re always a very well coached team, always disci-plined,” Kimel said. “our game is always a good game, that’s the bottom line—always a close game.”