No. 8 North Carolina visits Fournier and No. 16 Duke

By Canadian Press on February 26, 2025.

North Carolina Tar Heels (25-4, 13-3 ACC) at Duke Blue Devils (21-7, 12-4 ACC)

Durham, North Carolina; Thursday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 16 Duke faces No. 8 North Carolina after Toby Fournier scored 22 points in Duke’s 80-49 victory against the Syracuse Orange.

The Blue Devils are 12-1 on their home court. Duke is third in the ACC with 17.3 assists per game led by Taina Mair averaging 4.0.

The Tar Heels are 13-3 in conference matchups. North Carolina has a 3-1 record in one-possession games.

Duke scores 75.1 points, 18.7 more per game than the 56.4 North Carolina gives up. North Carolina averages 7.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.3 more made shots on average than the 4.5 per game Duke allows.

The Blue Devils and Tar Heels face off Thursday for the first time in ACC play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Fournier is averaging 13.4 points and 5.1 rebounds for the Blue Devils. Oluchi Okananwa is averaging 12.4 points and 1.6 steals over the last 10 games.

Maria Gakdeng is scoring 11.2 points per game and averaging 7.2 rebounds for the Tar Heels. Reniya Kelly is averaging 13.2 points and 3.7 rebounds over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Devils: 7-3, averaging 72.0 points, 31.7 rebounds, 17.0 assists, 9.7 steals and 4.6 blocks per game while shooting 45.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 56.8 points per game.

Tar Heels: 9-1, averaging 70.2 points, 33.1 rebounds, 12.9 assists, 6.8 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 43.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 62.5 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press

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