No, their minds weren't fixated on the 102-82 whipping their team had just administered to North Carolina in front of 6,904 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devil men had just begun their game at Boston College on the television across the room, and that game, at least, had some intrigue.
Other than a quasi-comeback in the second half, the No. 21 Tar Heels did little to capture the fifth-ranked Blue Devils' attention while racking up their fourth loss in their past five games.
Despite implementing their new slow-down offensive strategy fairly effectively, the Tar Heels (14-5, 4-4 in the ACC) were plagued yet again by easy misses and turnovers. They also got out-muscled by the Blue Devils in one of the most physical games they have played all season (11 players finished with at least three fouls).
"We've got to maintain an intensity level and physical play like we were allowed to play tonight," said UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell. "We've got to do that in our future games, no matter if we have people foul out or not."
Duke (16-3, 7-0) didn't waste much time ratcheting up its intensity and pulling away from UNC. Leading 12-9 seven minutes into the game, Duke went on a 10-2 run, capped by consecutive 3-pointers from guard Krista Gingrich and Beard, who finished with a game-high 31 points.
Then it just got silly. Penetrating UNC's interior defense and drawing contact nearly every trip down the court, the Blue Devils put together a 17-6 run during the last four minutes of the first half to take a 54-32 lead into intermission.
"It looked like they were having a shooting practice there for a few minutes," Hatchell said.
Although UNC would cut Duke's lead from 30 to 14 -- thanks largely to guard Coretta Brown's 15 second-half points -- Duke never seemed to be threatened.
The Tar Heels' dreadful shooting, meanwhile, continued.
