The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region of North Carolina is one of the best in the best places in the country for college basketball fans at any time of the year. Right now though, both No. 4-seed North Carolina and third-seeded Duke are hosting NCAA Tournament rounds. The Blue Devils took down Charleston early Friday afternoon and will face Baylor Sunday, while Maryland rolled over Murray State and the Tar Heels locked down Western Illinois. Here are some key takeaways from those games, as well as storylines to note as the second round of March Madness begins in the Triangle.
Paint dominance in Durham
While Duke’s guards seemed to struggle in Cameron Indoor Stadium, it was a feast for the Blue Devil bigs — who matched up quite well against a smaller Cougar front-court. Sophomore forward Toby Fournier led the charge for the hosting squad, catching the ball down low early and often to eventually rack up 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Fellow forward Delaney Thomas had a similarly fruitful afternoon with 19 of her own. It seemed like the Blue Devils came in with the intent of giving Fournier the opportunity to create her own shots, and she took advantage.
“For me, this game was a post-up game. [The Cougars] had a lot of smaller players, and I was able to use that to my advantage,” Fournier said afterwards.
Ultimately, Duke scored 44 points in the paint against Charleston. It should be noted that feeding the post might not be such a fruitful strategy against Baylor (who took down Nebraska) next round, given that the Bears have more size and will likely be able to jam up the paint more effectively. But still, after a rocky ACC Championship game, it will be valuable to have Fournier hot and back in the volume-scoring role she’ll probably be needed to play down the stretch.
Backcourt concerns
The other big storyline out of the first game in Durham was an obviously lacking guard room for the Blue Devils. Head coach Kara Lawson’s squad, with injuries to freshman Emilee Skinner and senior Emma Koabel, does not have a viable piece off the bench who can make an impact in the backcourt. Freshman Anna Wikstrom came in and played much more than usual against the Cougars but had no points and just a single assist. She was useful against Charleston when the starters needed rest, but won’t be much help if asked to generate her own buckets.
“In the fourth, I’ll be honest. I knew we were winning. I knew we were playing on Sunday so I wasn’t going to get anybody to, like, 35, 36 minutes. Even if the margin was shrinking, I just made a decision, our job is to survive and advance,” Lawson said postgame. “That’s why Wikstrom played 13 minutes.”
With that short bench in mind, the burden in the backcourt falls largely on seniors Taina Mair and Ashlon Jackson, who have sat in the point and shooting guard roles respectively all season long. In Friday’s games against the Cougars, though, Jackson and Mair both struggled. While they were effective in feeding the ball into the post, they couldn’t score much on their own. They combined for just nine points and nine turnovers and didn’t shoot particularly well. Versus Charleston, the Blue Devils made it work with size and strong finishing from the forwards. Against the Bears Sunday, Duke’s backcourt will need to step back up and generate more points — particularly from the perimeter — than it did in the first-round game. All this is to say improvements need to happen for the Blue Devils, and Lawson seemed confident that she could get her team in shape for later rounds.
“It’s not like a broken light bulb where you can just go to Home Depot and get it and twist it in,” Lawson said. “That’s not how it works.”
Maryland builds from the boards
Despite barely missing out on hosting their own tournament site with the No. 5 seed, the Terrapins proved that they were a force to be reckoned with come March. They took care of business against Murray State with ease — looking much more comfortable than Duke did. More importantly though, Maryland continued to rebound in the manner that it has all season long — at least partially because of its significant size advantage over the Racers.
“Clearly we had a lot more size on them. I think it begins there,” head coach Brenda Frese said after the game. “It also just comes down to will and a want and a desire, and I thought you saw that with our possessions on the glass, being able to go get extra opportunities when we would miss shots, holding [the Racers] to one-and-done.”
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The Terrapins posted 24 offensive boards as part of a 51-rebound showing, living up to a reputation built by being the No. 3 team in the nation in offensive rebound rate. Leading the charge against Murray State was guard Mir McLean, who posted nine o-boards as part of a 19-point double-double. Mclean, who has seen a significant uptick in minutes through the second half of the season, had to pull some extra weight for her team Friday too — fellow guard and standout rebounder Oluchi Okananwa had a short night due to foul trouble.
“I thought Mir set the tone for us early. She was ready to play aggressively all over the glass,” head coach Brenda Frese said postgame. “That’s a senior who doesn’t want to be finished. Just did a tremendous job setting the tone.”
Looking ahead to the second-round game against North Carolina, Maryland will want to maintain control of the glass. The Tar Heels are an excellent defensive team that limit opponents to just 82.6 points per 100 possessions — good for No. 32 nationally. As such, the Terrapins will need every opportunity they can get if they want to make it out of Chapel Hill.
Everybody eats
Those rebounds, in turn, set Maryland up for a very nice offensive day. The Terrapins never trailed against a Murray State group that appeared to be playing pretty well but could never manage to catch up to its opponents. Frese’s group shot 50% from the field and went 6-of-17 from three, just missing the triple-digit mark with 99 points on the day. While the tally itself is impressive, even more so is how many different players got in on the action. Maryland saw five different players score 12 or more points, as freshman guard Kyndal Walker came off the bench to lead her team with 20.
“We don’t care who gets the ball. We don’t care who scores as long as we win, that’s the most important part,” McLean said. “When you have a team like that who’s unselfish and willing to give up the ball for someone else to make a great play, it’s always fun.”
Depth is one of the most valuable traits a group can have when March rolls around. Every game matters, and when starters run into foul trouble or injury issues it will be key for Frese to have other options she can rely on to produce. Walker was that player for the Terrapins Friday, but she certainly isn’t the only one who can have a big game if need be. Against a Tar Heel squad that has been known to turn games into track meets, a capable bench will only help.
“For Oluchi only to play 17 minutes tonight and get in that kind of foul trouble and have other players step up. Then I thought we were able to go to our bench and make some great plays,” Frese said. “… Just being able to extend that to the bench was really important to be able to have for the next game.”
Defense wins championships
In another unsurprisingly strong showing, the Tar Heels had an excellent night against the Roughnecks, winning with ease and holding the visiting squad to just 51 points. North Carolina gave up 22 points to Western Illinois star Mia Nicastro, with nine of those coming at the free-throw line. The Tar Heels took advantage of their physical dominance — using their size inside to shut down the post, rack up blocks and force ugly shots. They also did a good job turning defense into offense, racking up 19 points off turnovers and 12 on the fastbreak.
“We knew we were going to play really strong. Western Illinois’ team — there’s not a team left in this tournament that isn’t capable of making a run,” guard Lanie Grant said. “We were very prepared for their key scorers. We were really tuned into [Nicastro].”
In fairness, the Roughnecks fought hard and played good defense of their own. They held North Carolina to just 10 made 3-point buckets on 40 attempts and managed to force some offensive miscues. Ultimately though, they were outmatched by a North Carolina squad that knew it could safely defend nearly every single opposing player one-on-one. Even Nicastro, the OVC player of the year, stands at an undersized 6-foot-2 for a center and struggled to create much outside of difficult shots.
Rivalries rekindled
One thing about the NCAA Tournament committee is that it loves a touch of drama in its matchups. In Durham, that manifests via a rematch of Duke and Baylor’s season-opening game in Paris — one that the Bears won without too much trouble. With both the Tar Heels and Terrapins advancing in Chapel Hill, fans will get a historic matchup and one that could rekindle a long-dormant rivalry. Maryland, a founding member of the ACC, has a long and storied history of games against North Carolina — one that largely concluded after the Terrapins skipped town to join the Big Ten.
Now, the two teams will match up when each is playing its best basketball of the season. Maryland is one of the best offensive teams in the country — a versatile group that can score at every level, clean up on the glass and punish opponents from three. The Tar Heels are a resolute defensive squad with a few capable scorers that can get hot and cause real problems. Both will be hungry to make returns to the Sweet 16 (and beyond) after losing in the third round of the tournament last season. Okananwa will also face off against a more recent rival, having seen plenty of the Tar Heels as a two-year standout for Duke.
“It should be a great environment. … I think there will be even more [fans] than were here today,” North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart said. “… But that’s what March is about, these matchups like this that can’t always happen, and when they do, you just want to buckle up and watch.”
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