The first three minutes of the second half featured the same sort of give-and-take as in the first half. This time, Duke was scoring thanks to its pressure, getting a steal & layup from Harding and a runout by Waner after a Bales rebound. Duke was turning the ball over a bit, coughing it up 3 times and giving HC some opportunties. Duke righted that ship with a 14-0 run over the next five minutes that turned the game into a blowout. Holy Cross turned the ball over 7 times during this stretch and only got 1 shot off. Duke wasn't getting easy runouts out of most of them--Gay hit a tough jumper and got a stickback, Bales hit 2 free throws, Abby found Emily on a no-look pass, and Smith stuck a three on a pass from Brittany Mitch. Mitch's steal and layup of an inbounds pass finished the run, giving Duke a 59-27 lead with 11:16 left. It didn't help the Crusaders that Foley picked up her 4th foul a few seconds earlier.

Holy Cross stopped the bleeding temporarily with an 8-4 run, with Bales getting a stickback and passing to Cheek on a cut. However, Duke struck back with a 9-0 run as their pressure generated steal after steal. When Bridgette Mitchell finished a fast break after another Bales block, that gave Duke a 72-35 lead with 6:28 to go.

Coach G called off the dogs after that, putting in Keturah Jackson down the stretch and going to a 2-3 zone. That allowed Holy Cross senior captain Brittany Keil to get some looks at the basket and get to 1,000 points for her career. Crusader coach Bill Gibbons had talked about this with Coach G before the game, simply telling her not to be confused if he had this starter in at the end and firing away. Gail told him not to worry about it, and that if she had her way, Keil would get to 1,000. It worked out well for a proud and emotional Holy Cross team, because Keil earned those points.

Duke scored 14 fast break points in the second half and only took a handful of shots outside 15'. Holy Cross abandoned their zone in favor of pressure Waner a bit more, but that just opened them up to Duke's penetration. After scoring 13 points in the first thirteen minutes of the game, O'Dell had just 6 the rest of the way as Coach G brought Harding back in with 2 fouls to lock her down. Waner finished with 26 points, and both Gay & Cheek had 10. The Devils only turned the ball over 12 times. Amazingly, Duke gave up just 4 offensive rebounds and only 2 second-chance points. The Devils forced Brianna McFadden into 9 turnovers, and only O'Dell reached double figures. Still, as Gibbons noted, this edition of the Crusaders competed much better with Duke than his Holy Cross clubs in 2005 and 2006. For Duke, it was certainly to their advantage to play against a motivated, passionate first-round opponent, because it forced them to win by playing well instead of simply coasting. Duke will need to bring that level of intensity to its next game and do it from the beginning of the game this time around.