No. 12 Duke Closes Regular Season at No. 21 North Carolina Sunday

Sunday, March 1

Chapel Hill, N.C.

12 p.m.

Duke University

North Carolina

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 12 Duke Closes Regular Season at No. 21 North Carolina Sunday

2/28/2026 12:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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The Opening Tip

Duke looks to capture the ACC regular season title outright Sunday afternoon at North Carolina. The Blue Devils clinched the top seed in the upcoming ACC Championship with an 80-52 victory over Florida State Thursday. Duke is 16-1 in league action, 21-7 overall and ranked 12th in the latest AP poll. Duke's 16 ACC victories are the most in a season under head coach Kara Lawson and tied for the second most in program history. The 2012-13 Blue Devil squad won a program-record 17 ACC games.
The 17-game win streak (Dec. 7-Feb. 21) was the longest under Lawson, with the next longest win streak in Duke women's basketball history being 20 games, most recently in 2010-11.
Duke's seven losses are against the current NET No. 5 LSU, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 South Carolina, No. 19 West Virginia, No. 30 Baylor, No. 38 Clemson and No. 76 South Florida. The Blue Devils are led on offense by sophomore Toby Fournier's 18.0 points per game. Taina Mair is averaging 11.2 points, 5.5 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game. Ashlon Jackson is playing both ends of the court at an elite level, dropping 11.7 points per game, a team-best 60 three-pointers and 4.5 assists per game, while drawing the toughest perimeter defensive matchup for Duke's elite defense. Fournier, Delaney Thomas and Arianna Roberson lead the charge on the glass, averaging 8.3, 6.1 and 6.0 rebounds per game, respectively. Thomas also contributes 10.2 points per game on a team-high 62 percent shooting, while Roberson adds 8.7 points and 1.2 blocks per game. Fournier is the top rim protector, averaging 2.3 blocks per game.
Duke and North Carolina meet for the 113th time, with the series sitting in a dead heat at 56 wins apiece. The Blue Devils are 16-32 all-time in Chapel Hill with the last true road win coming March 1, 2020. Duke, under head coach Kara Lawson, has not won in Chapel Hill with the 2025 loss coming in overtime and UNC pulling away in the fourth for the 63-59 win in 2024.

Last Time Out Notes

The Blue Devils captured their 13th ACC regular season title, earning a least a share via an 80-52 win over Florida State. It is the first regular season crown for Duke since 2013, while the 13 are the most of any ACC program.
Delaney Thomas pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds to become the sixth different Blue Devils to record at least 20 rebounds in a game. She is one of four players in the ACC this season to collect 20 boards - it's happened six times overall.
Toby Fournier posted another double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds, while adding five blocks. She owns one of four 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks performances by a player on a Power 4 team this season and is one of three players to do it against a conference foe.
Taina Mair had another outstanding night with her second career double-double and the first as a Blue Devil with 11 points and, 10 rebounds. She rounded out the stat sheet with eight assists and four steals.
Ashlon Jackson drained a season-high five three-pointers on 15 attempts. After starting the night 0-of-6, Jackson went 5-of-9, including 3-of-5 in the second half. Her 15 attempts from distance tied for the most since Rebecca Greenwell took 16 threes during the 2016-17 season.

Chart Climbers

Duke senior point guard Taina Mair is climbing her way up both the Duke and ACC assists charts. With four assists against NC State, Mair took over sole possession of ninth on the ACC career assists chart. Her 630 helpers are 24 away from the No. 7 spot on the ACC career list.
In three seasons at Duke, Mair has 413 assists, tying her with Monique Currie for 10th in Duke career history.
Mair has 156 assists on the season to sit tied for fourth with Lindsey Harding in Duke single-season history and just 12 away from tying Harding's No. 3 total. Chelsea Gray (2010-14) holds the record at 201, while Kira Orr (1993-97) is second at 170.
Ashlon Jackson hit five threes against Florida State to tie Abby Waner for third in career history at 222. Jackson has 60 threes this season, leaving her 10 away from becoming the fourth Blue Devil to record at least 70 trifectas in two seasons.
Jackson and Mair are two of Duke's best free throw shooters. In three seasons, Mair is 102-of-121 (.843), which would rank fourth in Duke history. In Jackson's four years, she is 176-of-213 (.826). That percentage would rank fifth in Duke history. Only six Blue Devils have finished their career shooting at least 80 percent from the line with a minimum of 100 attempts.

Rankings in the Duke-UNC Rivalry

Duke is set to face a top-25 North Carolina team for the 60th time in the 113 meetings and for the ninth time during Lawson's tenure. The Blue Devils are 30-29 in those 59 matchups and 4-4 since 2021-22.
Sunday's game is the eighth top-25 matchup between the rivals since the 2021-22 season. Duke has been ranked higher in six of those, going 3-3.

Duke's Seven Player Rotation

Duke has found success with a seven-player rotation this season, playing the past 17 games primarily with just seven players.
The Blue Devils are one of three teams to have defeated an AP top 25 team with a seven-player rotation, and the only one with multiple victories.

Putting the "D" in Duke

Lawson's teams are known for their defensive prowess and this year is no different with Duke ranking third overall in scoring defense and first in league action.
Duke has held all but one of the ACC programs with a winning record under their season scoring average.

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