When Duke is draining threes all over the place, it sometimes leads to a bit of complacency on defense. This happened against NC State in the ACC tournament, but State responded by penetrating and getting lots of open looks off the dribble. Duke was never able to disrupt State's offensive schemes the way they had so many other opponents, nor did they come up with the sort of tough rebounds when it was necessary. In the NCAA tournament, Duke was looking to regain its toughness and its ability to use its defense as a weapon. Against Holy Cross, Duke was able to do that in spurts in the first half, but really clamped down as a team in the second half.

The Crusaders, as I noted in my preview, are built around 6-4 center Kaitlin Foley and wonderfrosh Bethany O'Dell. O'Dell's three point shooting is what won the Patriot League title for Holy Cross, in a year where they lost their starting and backup point guards to injury. Stopping O'Dell from getting open looks was one of Duke's top priorities, along with frustrating Foley. Foley was never able to get much in the way of open looks in this game thanks to Duke's post defense, but covering O'Dell was another matter.

Duke started the game by pounding the ball inside. Holy Cross played exclusively in a zone in the first half, but Coach G wanted to at least make an effort to get the ball to Bales to keep her involved in the offense. She didn't want Duke to just fire up shots against the zone; instead, she wanted to make Holy Cross' defense move their feet and work hard. So Bales drew a foul on Foley in the game's first play, and Wanisha Smith hit Carrem Gay inside to give Duke a 3-2 lead. O'Dell scored on a runner after that, but Smith found Abby Waner for a three in the corner. Gay came up with a steal and Bales hit a 15' jumper to make it 8-2. O'Dell got open and snk a three, and then hit another jumper to bring her team to within 9-7.

Bales threw a lob to Gay for a score inside, presaging an 11-0 run by Abby Waner. Abby hit threes on passes from Smith, and then scored in transition after Bales blocked a shot. She capped that off with a 27' jumper off a catch-and-shoot from Smith to make it 22-7. Prior to that, she came over and emphatically blocked a three point attempt by Christy Cushnie (band chant: "Waner in your face!") and picked up a steal. With some of Duke's bench players in, Duke responded to a Foley basket with a post-up by Bales and a three from Harding. At this point, Duke's defense began to break down a bit. Holy Cross was trying to slow the game down and work the shot clock, but Duke would either give them a great look at the basket as time was winding down, or foul them to bail them out of a tough spot. When the game suddenly became a grind on the offensive end, Duke stopped playing with as much cohesion on the defensive end.

Holy Cross played Duke even for the next six minutes, coming within 31-17. Bales and Lindsey Harding were out with 2 fouls apiece, but Coach G brought Lindsey back in when O'Dell had scored her 13th point of the game. A post-up by Joy Cheek and a stickback by Gay were Duke's only scores during a five minute period, and a three by Brianna McFadden brought the Crusaders within 5 with just five minutes to go in the half.

Duke got serious again with some hard work, as rebound baskets by Bridgette Mitchell and Bales sandwiched another Waner three to push Duke's lead up to 18 again. Duke's offense stalled again in the last three minutes of the half with 3 misses and 2 turnovers, but their defense kept them in check until 30 seconds remained in the half. Duke matched that score with another quick-release trey by A.Waner, this time set up by her sister.

At around the eight minute mark, Holy Cross was shooting close to 47% from the field. By the end of the half, that slid down to 39%. Duke's offensive rebounding was key to their lead, with a 19-2 edge in second-chance points. To their credit, the Devils had only 4 first-half turnovers and forced 10. Abby had 20 first half points, many of them from Smith passes (8 assists). Still, the key to any great basketball team is taking away an opponent's confidence that they can be successful against you. Defense is the best way to do this--if a team doesn't see the ball go through the hoop, it shakes them and hurts how they play defense as well. Waner's three-point shooting had given her team the lead, but Duke had not quite played well enough to truly shake Holy Cross's ocnfidence yet.