The 1st Half In a way, a subpar effort against Virginia Tech could not have come at a better time for Duke. With Maryland coming to town on Saturday and all sorts of outside distractions for the Georgia Tech game, it was quite easy (and almost a relief) for the team to get focused for the Jackets and not look ahead to one of the bigger games of the year. While Duke's play was far from perfect, the intensity on defense and an attack mindset at both ends made life extremely difficult for Georgia Tech. While the Jackets were plucky and got maximum effort from many of their role players, they simply didn't have the guns to compete against a Duke team that was on fire from long range and running at every opportunity. Tech was without top rebounder and third leading scorer Janie Mitchell. With Mitchell on their squad, the Jackets gave UNC all they could handle in Atlanta, leading several minutes into the second half. While the Jackets have not had great records in recent years, it seemed like this could be the season that they make a move into the ACC's top 6. Given the season-ending injury to Mitchell and the continuing injury problems of Jill Ingram (playing but not nearly 100%), plus the loss of three other players on their roster due to injury or other factors, and one can see that they're just trying to keep their heads above water at this point. Still, Chioma Nnamaka & Stephanie Higgs are dangerous scorers, and roughly the same squad had Duke in serious trouble last season in Atlanta. The Jackets' chief strength is their perimeter play, with the aforementioned guards along with speedster Jacqua Williams. Their weakness is in the post: they have only one player over 6-2. Coach MaChelle Joseph was forced to start a 6-2 forward in the post and a 6-0 wing at the power forward slot. To their credit, that duo (Brigitte Ardossi & Kentrina Wilson) battled hard and played excellent defense on Alison Bales (photo). However, the reality of the situation was that Tech wasn't going to get a lot of easy scores inside with Bales erasing everything. She was credited with 6 blocks but had several near-blocks and shot-alterations. With their lack of size, the Jackets like to play a 3-2 matchup zone. That kind of zone is very effective against penetration and tends to negate the use of high screens, but it leaves the corners open as well as some chances to lob it inside. Joseph was happy to take her chances against a Duke team that was not been shooting lights-out from three, especially at home. The effect her defense had was to allow Duke's shooters a lot of time to load up, even if they were shooting from way beyond the arc. Once Duke got into a rhythm, they were pretty much unstoppable from long range. At the same time, Duke was looking to push tempo. They ran off of rebounds, they ran off of steals, and they took advantage of occasional gaps in the zone to zip in and get quick scores. Duke probed Georgia Tech's defenses and took what was being given to them and didn't try to force things. Of course, that was when Duke was holding on to the ball. As focused as they were on the defensive end, Duke had a number of careless turnovers--balls thrown out of bounds, dribbles fumbled away, trying to drive through double-teams, etc. If Duke hadn't turned the ball over 24 times, they would have easily crossed the century mark. While this was a solid win, the Devils really need to be able to take advantage of every opportunity given to them on offense. As always, Duke looked to establish Alison Bales early and often. Waner drove and hit Ali for an 18' jumper, and then Carrem Gay passed to her out of a high-low set for an easy score. Nnamaka hit a three and then drove past Wanisha Smith for another quick score to give Tech their only lead of the game at 5-4. Waner was guarding Higgs and Harding was on Williams to start the game. Harding drove and found Waner in the corner, and Abby rocketed off a beautiful three. One could see the confidence on her face and the smoothness of her form. That trey started a 12-0 run that put Duke in control. Smith dished to Gay inside and Harding zipped a pass to Waner on a fast break (left) after Bales pulled down a rebound. Harding then stole the ball, tapped it out to Gay, and then turned on the afterburners to finish in transition. There were times in this game where Lindsey just seemed to go into a higher gear and left the defenders in the proverbial dust. Emily Waner came in and dished to a supremely confident Harding for a three (right). With 13:25 left in the half, Duke led 16-5. Nnamaka hit another three, but Harding drove, drew the defender and dropped it off to Gay for an easy finish. Bales then blocked a shot that triggered another break that A.Waner finished. After another Tech turnover, Harding popped a 15' jumper to make it 22-8 with under eleven minutes left. The Devils unveiled a halfcourt zone trap whenever the ball swung to the sideline, and it was very effective for several possessions. Nnamaka had a stickback and had at that point had all 10 of Tech's points. Smith was giving her too much room and wasn't denying her the ball enough for Coach G's liking, so she switched Harding on to her. The result: after hitting 4 of her first 6, Nnamaka sank just 1 of her last 8 attempts. Despite Nnamaka being silenced, Tech kept clawing away whenever Duke looked like they were going to pull away. When Tech twice pulled within 10 points, Duke responded with a three: once by Harding, and once by A.Waner. That three by Harding started off a 7-0 that gave Duke a 35-18 lead. Duke had started to go a bit deeper into its bench, and the result was some uneven play. Joy Cheek was an immediate bright spot as she got a stickback to end a mini-drought, hit a free throw and snagged a steal to crank up another fast break. After a couple of minutes rest for the starting backcourt, Waner hit another three and finished a fastbreak from Harding. Duke led by 20 with a minute left and was cruising into the half. Then Duke committed 4 fouls in that minute but Tech missed the front end of a one-and-one and had the ball and a chance to run down the clock. Instead, Smith threw a bad pass and then fouled Higgs as she was shooting a three. Higgs hit the shot and then the foul shot to give Tech a bit of momentum. The Devils shot 54% in the half and 6-9 from three. Despite their size advantage, Duke had just a +5 edge on the boards; the two teams were even in 2nd chance points. It was points off turnovers that was the killer for Tech; Duke had a 23-8 advantage. A.Waner had 15 points and Harding had 11, with 4 assists. Copyright © 2006 DWHOOPS.COM (Orin A. Day, Durham, NC, USA.) All Rights Reserved.