The 1st Half Coach G was unhappy with Duke's defensive effort against Virginia Tech. Kirby Copeland was able to attack Duke off the dribble (and get to the foul line), Nare Diawara shut down Alison Bales and was effective scoring inside, and Brittany Cook was effective from short range. That trio accounted for 43 of VPI's 54 points and 17 of their 20 field goals. Their success ran counter to Duke's goals of shutting down their opponent's main threats. Virginia Tech simply didn't have enough talent to truly threaten Duke, but this was the first time this season that Duke's effort was exceeded by its opponent. A big negative for Duke in the first half wound up becoming a positive. Every one of Duke's starters but Wanisha Smith picked up 2 fouls in the half, starting with Lindsey Harding. Nish and the bench not only held the fort, they increased Duke's lead from 1 to 14 at the break. It was a bit of a gamble for Coach G, but the fact that the bench has played so well of late in recent games was a big key to their solid play in this contest. Smith started off hot once again, finishing twice in transition in the early going. Cook & Diawara scored to put the Hokies ahead, but Harding nailed a 10' jumper in the lane. Copeland drove to give VPI an 8-7 lead, their last of the game. Bales hit her only shot of the half to start a 7-0 run, with Harding driving in for a three point play and Bridgette Mitchell powering up. VPI kept pace, pulling within 15-12. Two Smith foul shots and a Harding steal & runout seemed to put Duke in control, but 3 straight misses and 4 turnovers by Duke allowed the Hokies to crawl to within 1 point. Harding went out with 2 fouls at that point, but the Waner sisters came to life. Emily Waner found Abby for a three. Tech tried to respond with a three of their own, but Abby hit Emily for a second three. Joy Cheek snagged a key rebound and Smith found Abby for a third three. Suddenly, Duke was up by 10. Diawara scored 4 points in a row and picked up a foul on Bales, pulling the Hokies to within 6. With her teammates picking up fouls, Smith stepped up. She sank a three from Emily Waner; when VPI missed another three, Bales scooped up the rebound and fired it to Nish for a transition bucket. The Hokies missed the front end of a one-and-one and Smith drove and was fouled, hitting both. As Duke's players started picking up more and more fouls, the bench picked up the slack. Mitchell had a stickback and Cheek sank 4 free throws with under a minute left. Amazingly, that gave Duke their biggest lead at 14 points. Picking up the pace against VT's sluggish transition defense led to an 18-0 advantage in the first half. Those transition points were spurred by a 13-4 edge in points off turnovers. Duke was turning defense into offense, but they didn't bring the intensity needed to take VT's best players out of a scoring rhythm. Copyright © 2006 DWHOOPS.COM (Orin A. Day, Durham, NC, USA.) All Rights Reserved.