1st Half Recap
The first seven minutes of the game were a back-and-forth affair as both
teams played with incredible precision on offense. Little-used Aurelie Noirez
started the game thanks to her senior status, and she popped a jumper for
Maryland's first points, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Lindsey Harding
responded with a pull-up 10' jumper - a small taste of the scoring
avalanche that was to come. Noirez then dished to Kristi Toliver for her first
three of the game. Harding responded with a second pull-up jumper, and then sank
a 15 footer in transition off a Waner steal to give Duke a 6-5 lead. Marissa
Coleman hit her first and only three of the game, but Harding responded with
her own trey. Laura Harper scored inside off a nice Doron feed, but Harding
pulled up for a 17' jumper to give Duke an 11-10 lead. If in Cameron we'd have
heard a "Lindsey's winning" cheer - though certainly a rarity with a one point
advantage.
Doron then hit an open baseline jumper thanks to a nice pass, but Waner fed
Wanisha Smith for a perfectly unrushed three. Harper scored inside again,
but Harding went behind
a screen for another long-range bomb. Seven minutes into the half, Duke led
17-14 as both teams were operating at peak efficency on offense. Harding had
14 of her team's points. Meanwhile, Carrem Gay was sitting on the bench with 2
quick fouls. Toliver then made a shot and missed a three, which seemed to break
her rhythm a bit. Bales was in the low block and threw a pass up to Joy Cheek,
who had come in off the bench in relief of Gay. Joy stepped up and sank the
19' jumper. Coach G noted that Maryland was conceding this shot to Gay or
Cheek and told them to start taking it, and Carrem reentered the game.
After a ridiculous high-arching jumper by Jade Perry over Bales, Gay hit a
long jumper to put Duke up 21-18, and then another 17' shot to break a 21-21
tie. The Terps tied the game again at 23 thanks to a Coleman jumper, but Nish
used a high pick from Gay to free herself for a drive. She then got a key
rebound and dished to Waner, who found Gay inside for an easy score. Harding
rebounded the front end of a one-and-one and found Gay inside for a sweeping
hook over star forward Crystal Langhorne. Langhorne is one of the best players
in the country and on the short list for ACC and national player of the year.
Her footwork is impeccable and she uses her amazing quickness to get rebounds.
She scored 15 points on 7-9 shooting against Duke in this game, the one player
Duke couldn't control. Despite her credentials, there's one thing that
Langhorne is not: a great defender. As a result, Gay realized that she could
take the ball right to her and Langhorne would struggle to stop her. If it
wasn't for Carrem's foul trouble, she could have done a lot more damage.
As Doron was inbounding the ball after Gay's basket, Waner stepped in front of
it for the steal. She passed to a quickly cutting Harding, who stopped in front
of Doron, popped the 10' jumper and got fouled by a stunned Doron. That sent
Doron to the bench for the last three minutes of the half. While Shay didn't
have many big plays in this game, it was clear that the Terps missed her
intensity & leadership. Meanwhile, Coach G's risk in putting Gay back in with
two fouls paid off.
Langhorne scored to cut the lead to 31-25 and Gay then missed a short shot.
Cheek was there for the rebound and passed to Harding, who hit a long deuce.
After Sade' Wiley-Gatewood hit a short shot, Harding boosted her total to 20
from close range after she shook off her defenders. Coleman
scored on a stickback to make it 35-29. Even though Duke turned the ball
over twice - a Cheek charge and a Mitchell miscue - the Terps couldn't take
advantage. With regard to the former, the veteran officiating crew of Bell,
Cunningham, and Kantner consistently whistled the charge all night - and Duke
is very familiar with these big game refs.
Both teams shot over 50%, but Duke was dominating the boards and was running
more. They had an 8-0 edge in fast break points and a surprising 8-2 advantage
in second-chance points. A team like Maryland lives off of its ability to get
offensive rebounds and score, and the fact that Duke prevented them from doing
this was a good sign. Both teams wanted to make the other prove that they
could hit jump shots. The Devils felt that Maryland wouldn't be able to keep
up if they took a lot of shots off the dribble, instead of concentrating on
going inside-out. The Devils in turn did a good job in giving her different
looks and limiting her to just 1 first-half field goal. If the Terps had been
able to work a bit harder inside, they might have been able to take advantage
of the foul trouble suffered by Duke losing its two frontcourt players.
Maryland instead took too many jumpshots in an effort to catch up quickly, and
that lack of patience hurt them. Meanwhile, Harding, Gay & Smith had 33 of the
team's 35 points. Waner, slowed by the flu, was 0-3 from the field. Bales had
taken just 2 shots and was sent to the bench after an offensive foul. With Waner
and Bales scoreless, Duke's poise and mental toughness were both on display.
And it was clear that the defending national champs weren't done yet.
