Duke Downs UNC For ACC Title In A Thriller (945 AM)

In a thrilling game, the Duke women defeated UNC to win their first ACC
Championship.  It's really hard to describe the level this game was played
on.  Suffice it to say that it was a game beween two teams which were both
playing great. UNC, and particularly Teasley, was on fire in the second half,
and they stormed back and the game was a classic Duke-UNC thriller.  There
were more key plays than we can remember, but here are a few:

• Missy West draining a key three.
• Lauren Rice almost stealing a pass (she ran into Gingrich), and tipping
  the ball to UNC for a three.
• Lauren Rice passing over the UNC defense to Georgia Schweitzer, who turned
  away from the basket to kill time - then hit a streaking teammate for the
  layup.

We'd also like to compliment the team on the absolutely beautiful ball
movement.  There were times we wanted to jump through the screen and hug
the whole team and say: yes! Yes, that's how you play this game! It was truly
gorgeous at times.

Next year, Duke will be missing Missy West, who was sensational tonight, and
Lauren Rice, who has become one of our favorite players, as she has the knack of
being in the right place at the right time and subtly influencing the game in
the little ways that don't always get noticed.  She has a bit of Dunleavy's
game in some ways, actually.

And while it was sad to see the Akron Strangler, Rochelle Parent, in anguish
after fouling out, her teammates got the job done against a very fiery team, and
a hot team, too. It's hard to hold off that kind of shooting. If the game had
gone on another five minutes, UNC might well have won.

Congratulations to both teams for a riveting championship. It was worthy of
the great games in the ACC past, and we mean men's as well as women's.