Though Team Reebok was obviously a bit tired after playing nine college teams in nine days, they still had plenty of fight in them. Indeed, this talented group of players had just crushed NC State a night earlier--and they had a chance to rest their top scorer, former Tennessee player Sydney Spencer. With other familiar former college players like Tennessee's Dominique Redding & Courtney McDaniel, Temple's Fatima Maddox, UNC's Leah Metcalf and Georgia Tech's Kentrina Wilson, Team Reebok had already defeated Georgia Tech and played Florida State tough. The team doesn't have a lot of size, so they ran a five-out motion offense, set lots of screens and let it fly from three. This approach proved difficult to stop for many teams, including a Georgia team that wasn't ready to defend them and got blown out by 17 points. Team Reebok averaged an impressive 78 points per game coming into this contest and was only blown out by UNC in their first game of the tour. Defending the three point line and keeping TR off the line would be Duke's top priorities.

Duke started the game meaning business on the defensive end, suffocating Spencer and Metcalf. Her #7 jersey had to be modified with a couple of strips of tape to #2, but the effect made it look more like a "z" (which elicited some shouts of "Z is not a number!" from the crowd). The Devils started the game on a 16-2 run, with a starting lineup of Chante Black, Carrem Gay, Wanisha Smith, Abby & Emily Waner. Jasmine Thomas subbed in with Joy Cheek four minutes into the game, and Jasmine wound up playing eleven first-half minutes to Emily's six. Abby was everywhere in the early going, nailing 2 threes, grabbing 5 rebounds and pilfering 2 steals in the game's first seven minutes. Gay finished a high-low pass from Black and sank a long jumper. Krystal Thomas got into the game and immediately finished a feed from Jasmine, and then dished to Jasmine on the next play to tally Duke's 16th points.

Duke pushed the lead to 21-5 on a long three from Jasmine Thomas. Back-to-back turnovers by Black & Thomas led to easy runouts for TR and got their competitive juices flowing a bit. Jasmine responded by delivering the ball to Black inside for a strong post-up. Gay followed up with another short jumper and E.Waner dished to Cheek for a smooth-looking three. That put Duke up 28-9 with under eight minutes to go.

Team Reebok rsponded with a 7-2 run as McDaniel scored 5 straight points and another player scored in transition. In the first half, TR outscored Duke 8-2 on fast breaks. Some of those baskets came about after long rebounds, where Duke simply didn't get back quickly enough; those plays had to do more with a lack of focus than a lack of speed. During the run, Duke started to overpass a bit instead of taking good shots when they preseted themselves. Bridgette Mitchell hit a long jumper and Thomas sank another of her high-arcing shots to put Duke up 35-16. Team Reebok cut that lead to 15, but Brittany Mitch made a couple of big plays to push the lead back up. First, she found Cheek on a cut, and then hit a 19' jumper at the first half buzzer. In the half, J.Thomas led Duke with 10 points, while A.Waner and Gay had 6 apiece. Duke won the rebounding battle 24-13 but let a number of rebounds slip through their hands. Duke shot an impressive 50% from the floor, albeit against a smaller team, and held TR to 29%, including 2-10 from three.

The Second Half

Duke started off strong in the second half as Abby Waner and Wanisha Smith asserted themselves. Nish drove to the basket and was fouled, and also nailed a three on a Waner feed. Abby sank a three of her own and dished inside to Black for a score. That came after a sequence where Jasmine emphatically blocked a drive by Metcalf, and Metcalf fired up a bad three in an effort to redeem herself. Metcalf did lead a 9-3 run along with Redding as TR put on a press. Duke turned it over 4 times in less than two minutes and lacked cohesion at both ends. Gay scored 4 straight points, but Redding hit another jumper and Metcalf blew by E.Waner to cut the lead back to 19 with twelve minutes to go.

Duke shook themselves out of their lethargy and started to get aggressive. Smith went baseline on a strong drive and A.Waner stripped Redding for a steal and layup. After a Redding trey, TR got the ball back. K.Thomas tipped the ball to J.Thomas, who threw it ahead to Smith. With a clear lane to the basket, Nish unselfishly passed the ball to Cheek for the finish. It was Duke's best break of the night. Waner followed that up by draining a three from the corner on a pass from Smith to Duke up 65-40.

Metcalf and Smith traded threes and Cheek stuck back a K.Thomas miss. TR scored 4 straight points before Duke embarked on a 9-0 run that put an exclamation mark on the game. Smith sank a three on a pass from Jackson and then returned the favor by finding KJ in transition. Cheek hit a short jumper and K.Thomas followed up a block by finishing in transition on yet another assist by Smith. Mitchell had a few nice plays to end the game, and Christmas also displayed some impressive hustle, contributing to the 88-56 final score.

Overall, Duke won the rebounding battle 52-30. Duke shot 49% for the game to just 30% for a TR squad that was clearly tiring. Duke's extensive use of its bench certainly contributed to that fatigue, however. The Devils did have 19 turnovers against a team that pressed a bit in the second half and gave up 16 fast break points. Both of those deficiencies will have to be addressed, and quickly. The Devils took what TR gave them, which was lots of open mid-range jumpers. TR was limited as to their offensive options, especially since Duke did a pretty nice job of forcing bad shots. In particular, they held leading scorer Spencer to 1-9 shooting and Metcalf to 5-14. The team was clearly well-prepared to take them on. On the other hand, McDaniel and Redding got too many open looks. Still, neutralizing your opponents' best players is always something to celebrate. Duke held TR 22 points under their average for the tour and 15 points less than their lowest total (71, against FSU).

After the game, Coach P noted that she was pleased with her team's pressure, rebounding and unselfishness. She thought they could be even more aggressive on the offensive boards, cut down on fouls and take better care of the ball. She was pleased that Duke had to face a press. As far as her lineups went, she feels that Duke is still "finding each other", trying to create the right combinations. Team Reebok coach Bret McCormick stated that he thought Duke was the best team he had faced on the tour, praising its depth, athleticism, intelligence and shooting. He did think that point guard could be a problem for them, and that Jasmine Thomas would eventually become best-suited for the job.

There were a couple of small new touches to note from the game. First, there was the announcement of "Lunch With Coach P". On Friday, November 16th, McCallie will host a live radio show from Satisfaction in downtown Durham, between 11:30am and 12:30pm. It'll be an interesting opportunity for fans to ask questions and interact with the community-conscious coach in a storied Duke hangout. Also, at the end of the game, she had the team do something interesting. First, they all gathered at center court to wave to the fans and thank them for coming. Second, they all lined up, arms around each other, and faced the band as they played "Dear Old Duke", swaying as they did so. It was a nice moment of togetherness and school spirit, and the crowd clearly appreciated it. The crowd kept gathering mass as the game went on, with the gate announced at 3,246.