1st Half Recap
Duke built an early lead and added to it slowly, but could never
completely shake a Boston College club that made some tough shots. The
Devils were extremely efficient on offense for most of the first half and
Coach G was enormously pleased with how well they shared the ball; 16 of
Duke's 21 first-half field goals came off of assists. In addition to
shooting 57% from the floor in the period, the Devils also dominated the
boards and got 12 second-chance points from 8 offensive rebounds. This
was thanks to the remarkable offensive rebounding of Bridgette Mitchell
and Abby Waner's willingness to really stick her nose in the action and go
after the ball. Duke made BC pay every time they turned the ball over,
breaking out to a remarkable 14-0 edge in points off turnovers in the
first half. Even when the Eagles were able to score a bit late in the
first half, the relentless play of Mitchell kept a lot of pressure on the
Eagles to keep up. Down the stretch, they couldn't do it. In the end,
Duke took care of business, got everyone in the game, and forced the Eagle
into a lot of turnovers and bad shots. It wasn't always pretty, but it
was effective.
The Devils started the game on a 13-2 run. Lindsey Harding found an
aggressive Carrem Gay on Duke's first possesion for an easy score, and
then Abby Waner hit Wanisha Smith in transition after a Bales block.
During that segment, the Eagles were blocked again by Bales, turned the
ball over a couple of times and missed some difficult shots. Other than
one basket by big Italian center Kathrin Ress, BC couldn't get any open
looks. Meanwhile, Gay got a stickback and added another rebound. That
triggered a sequence where Harding drove, passed to Gay and watched as
Carrem dished to a cutting Smith for an easy finish. This was smooth
basketball that took advantage of what the opponent was doing and made
sure that the team took the best shot available. A Bales steal led to
Waner finding Smith for a three, and Gay capped off the run with a
steal & runout (photo, right).
Ress scored over Bales, but Ali countered with a long jumper. Ress
scored again, but Smith found Waner for a three. Ress powered up yet
again (and Bales even got a fingertip on the shot), but Smith broke three
for a fast break three point play when Harding fired a pass to her.
After a layup by promising frosh Mickel Picco, Nish got the ball to
Lindsey for a score. Two BC foul shots were followed by Smith dishing to
Waner for another three (left). No matter what BC did, they were
treading
water
against a Duke team that was scoring at will.
Duke seemed ready
to put the Eagles away then and there, but the Devils got sloppy. BC has
a way of baiting teams into risky plays because they seem to be a step
slow, but they usually seem able to recover for steals. Bales was having
trouble getting the ball in scoring position against Ress, who managed to
avoid foul trouble for most of the first half. Harding, Waner and Gay all
had a turnover in a couple of minutes, and Coach G went to her bench.
Inserting Mitchell into the game worked like magic. She quickly scored on
a cut on a pass thrown by Brittany Mitch, who quietly had a very strong
game. She forced a turnover on BC guard Sarah Marshall prior to that
scoring play.
Another BC frosh,
Beth Egnell, scored on a smooth turnaround jumper that went in because
Bales wasn't in the game to block it. Mitchell matched that with a layup
after she caught a lob from Emily Waner. A Picco jumper was matched by
Mitchell getting a stickback. A Picco three was topped by Mitchell
scoring on a cut and then sticking back a Harding miss. Picco hit another
three, but Mitchell dished to Bales in the high post for a long jumper.
Marshall hit a miracle three with the shot clock running down to cut the
lead to 38-25, but that's when Mitchell made the play of the game.
With less than four minutes to go in the half, Smith was not passing to
Mitchell, but Bridgette intercepted the pass and took it to score quickly
inside. The ball seemed drawn to her magnetically, and her scoring touch
was remarkable. That triggered an 8-0 run that put Duke into a 21-point
lead. Mitchell cleaned up another miss to make it 42-25. Bales then
blocked Ress and hit Gay in the high post for a long jumper. Smith then
grabbed a rebound and fired the ball to Mitch for a fast break finish.
Duke used its height advantage at most positions to its advantage, as most
of Duke's players were able to post up repeatedly.
The endgame for the
half was a bit sloppy. Gay missed twice, A.Waner got a cheap foul on Ress
that sent her to the foul line, and then Abby threw the ball away with 3
seconds left in the half. Still, Duke led 46-27, held the Eagles to 31%,
forced 9 turnovers and dominated the boards. Coach G could live with the
mistakes if it meant aggressive play. Mitchell had 14 points at the half,
Smith 10 and Gay 8. Ress had 10 points, but it took her 11 shots (4-11)
to get there. Picco also had 10 points but had become a lot less
effective when Harding started guarding her.
An interesting sideline in this game was that BC guard Ayla Brown
was a
top-20 contestant on American Idol recently. The Crazies let her know
that they knew with chants of "Simon hates you!" when she was at the foul
line, yet Brown gave an autographed copy of her CD to one of the students
harrassing her...at halftime! That loosened her up a bit, because she
played much better in the second half...
