The 1st Half For about ten minutes, it looked like Duke was going to do the unthinkable: run Tennessee out of their own building. They had sprinted out to a 28-7 lead and looked great doing it. But everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It took awhile, but the Lady Vols loosened up on offense and amped up their intensity on defense. While Duke had a lot of problems in this game (rebounding, perimeter defense, turnovers), the fact that they calmly fended off the Lady Vols after they tied the score speaks to how mentally tough this team really is--and how much trust Coach G has in her leaders. Duke's game plan was to take advantage of Tennessee's pressure by going backdoor as often as possible. With three ballhandlers on the floor who all looked to pass and shot when open, Duke thought they had an advantage over a small Lady Vol backcourt. With Duke's ability to trap, the hope was to get the running game going, force a lot of tough jumpers from Tennessee and get rebounds. That didn't quite work the way they wanted the whole time, but it sure started off nicely. The Devils started off the game on a 19-0 run spanning over six minutes. It began with Alison Bales hitting a cutting Abby Waner for a layup. Wanisha Smith grabbed a rebound and zipped the ball down to Harding for a 10' jumper. Carrem Gay split the defense for a layup, and a Waner steal led to a Harding fast break basket. Tennessee started to collapse on Duke's penetration and left Waner open for a three from Smith. Harding stole the ball and missed a layup in transition, but Waner followed the play and got the stickback. After another Tennessee turnover, Bales hit Harding from the high post on a give-and-go for a spectacular three point play. Waner then loaded up from long range to give Duke that 19 point lead. During the run, Tennessee missed 8 shots and turned the ball over 4 times. Tennessee finally scored, but Duke kept up its sharpness on the offensive end. Bales hit a long jumper and then found Waner on yet another cut. Ali picked up her 4th assist hitting Waner on the perimeter for three to put Duke up 26-7. Alexis Hornbuckle of UT hit a three and Candace Parker finaly scored after struggling to connect early on. Another UT turnover found Waner in transition; she missed, but Joy Cheek came off the bench for the stickback. After a Hornbuckle three, Waner found Cheek on a cut as the Lady Vols once again were burned by overplaying and being a bit too slow on their double-teams. With about nine minutes left in the half, Duke still had an impressive 30-10 lead. Duke started to lose a bit of focus, with 5 missed shots and 5 turnovers over the next five minutes. That sloppiness allowed the Lady Vols to find a bit of a rhythm and get a respite from Duke's onslaught. They shaved 7 points off the lead, but Harding found Waner for yet another three. Parker scored inside but Harding hit Waner yet again for an open trey, her fifth of the game. The Devils were in charge again with a 17 point lead. However, the Devils only got one more field goal attempt off in the last three minutes of the half. Meanwhile, the Lady Vols corralled an amazing 8 offensive rebounds, and crawled within 38-27 at the half. Duke's only points came on 2 Smith free throws. The Devils shot nearly 60% in the half, while the Lady Vols were just short of 30%. Duke also outrebounded UT, despite 14 offensive rebounds from the home team. Six different players scored for the Devils in the half, led by Waner's 21. Tennessee's 10-2 advantage in second chance points was the only thing that kept them in the game. There was a real sense that the Lady Vols were actually in great shape, because Parker was starting to warm up. Tennessee was starting to make adjustments and stop Duke's back-door cuts. If the Devils started missing jumpers and the Lady Vols hit a few, the potential for a significant momentum shift was there. Copyright © 2007 DWHOOPS.COM (Orin A. Day, Durham, NC, USA.) All Rights Reserved.