North Carolina vs. Duke WBB Preview

The No. 16 Duke Blue Devils will face their in-state rivals, the No. 8 North Carolina Tar Heels, this Thursday in a highly anticipated rematch.

This will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams, with the first encounter back on January 9th, where North Carolina won 53-46. The contentious series has reached overtime seven times throughout the years including this past matchup.

North Carolina leads the all-time series 56-53.

The rivalry looks to be another intense showdown, especially following Duke's dominant 83-63 victory over Syracuse on Sunday. That win broke a two-game losing streak for the Blue Devils, including a tough 70-62 loss to Louisville.

Meanwhile, North Carolina comes into the game on a seven-game win streak after barely beating Louisville with a 79-75 comeback victory on Sunday.

Freshman Lanie Grant showed out in Sunday's win, with the 17-year-old scoring a career-high 19 points. The Carolina bench scored an ACC-game best 38 points over the Cardinals.

The Tar Heels are the only remaining team with a perfect road record holding an undefeated 9-0 record in away games this season.

With both teams ranked in the top 20, the stakes are high. For Duke, the rivalry game offers a chance to make a statement ahead of March Madness.

Senior Maria Gakdeng leads the Tar Heels with 11.2 points per game, while guard Alyssa Ustby adds 10.7 points per game.

Duke’s senior duo, guard Vanessa de Jesus and guard Reigan Richardson, lead the Blue Devils.

North Carolina is aggressive defensively, forcing an average of 17.5 turnovers per game and leading the ACC in steals with 8.3 per game. In their first meeting of the season, the Tar Heels forced Duke into 21 turnovers.

Another point of revenge will come from the shooting game, Duke struggled with shooting in the first meeting, hitting just 23.5% of its field goals. However, in recent games the Blue Devils were shooting 50% against Louisville and 43.5% against Syracuse.

Duke owns the advantage on their home court, leading 29-17 heading into this game despite Carolina winning the last two out of three meetings in Cameron Indoor.

As the final home game of the season, the game will also be celebrated as Senior Night, where Duke will honor two of its seniors Vanessa de Jesus and Reigan Richardson. As for the rest of the team there is a lot of youth to build off of heading into future seasons.

Meanwhile, a win would give Carolina a sweep over all in-state ACC competitors for the first time since the 2013-14 season. Beyond that North Carolina sits at 6-0 this month holding a seven game winning streak. The team has a chance to go perfect in February for the first time since 2007-08.

Bronwyn Liber is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email brl5354@psu.edu.