Jasmine Thomas was unstoppable in Duke's 66-58 Sweet Sixteen victory over San Diego State, leading all scorers with 29 points en route to matching her career high.

Duke used its superior quickness and disruptive on-ball defense to dismiss upstart 11th seed San Diego State 66-58, earning a date with Britney Griner and the 4th seeded Baylor Bears in Monday's Memphis Regional Final. Jasmine Thomas was unstoppable, leading all scorers with 29 points, while Joy Cheek added 14. Bridgette Mitchell was again the X-factor for Duke, this time as a defender with 8 rebounds and 7 steals. Duke opened the second half with a 21-4 backbreaking run and then coasted to victory, with many of those points coming off 26 Aztec turnovers. Amazingly 23 of that total were Duke steals, shy of the the school record of 28 but still an impressive achievement. Duke's first half defense was lacking, giving up too many open looks and rebounds as the Devils led at half by just one, but the second half clampdown led to an 8 minute SDSU field goal drought, and an insurmountable lead. Jene' Morris was largely shut down, scoring only 13 points on 4-8 shooting (3-10 3FG) and Duke allowed only five second chance points. On the other end Duke controlled their boards with 19 offensive rebounds to 18 Aztec defensive rebounds. Only the Blue Devil propensity for coughing up the basketball kept them from getting more than the 16 second chance points that they did. For the second straight game in the NCAA Tournament Duke didn't take care of the basketball (21 turnovers) and failed to convert from distance (2-9 3FG). As against LSU in the second round, Duke got some great looks from behind the arc, but their shots just weren't falling. On Monday night that will probably have to be different for Duke to succeed -- Griner has been a shot blocking machine, with 26 blocks in this year's tournment. The NCAA tourney record books are currently dominated by Alison Bales who presently holds the single-year tournament record (32) and tournament career record (62). The former record may fall in Monday night's Memphis championship, which mirrors the men's Duke-Baylor South Region final in Houston Sunday.

Duke Blue Devils Team Box Score

PTS FG FG % 3FG 3FG % FT FT% A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 35 15-31 48.4 2-7 28.6 3-5 60.0 6 7-8-15 2 12 10 10 2nd 31 9-28 32.1 0-2 0.0 13-17 76.5 6 12-15-27 1 11 13 4 TOT 66 24-59 40.7 2-9 22.2 16-22 72.7 12 19-23-34 3 23 23 14

#11 San Diego St Team Box Score PTS FG FG % 3FG 3FG % FT FT% A O-D-REB BLK STL TO PF 1st 34 11-24 45.8 5-10 50.0 7-8 87.5 6 5-9-14 5 4 13 4 2nd 24 9-29 31.0 4-15 26.7 2-3 66.7 5 5-9-14 1 7 13 11 TOT 58 20-53 37.7 9-25 36.0 9-11 81.8 11 10-18-28 6 11 26 15 Please support DWHoops with a site membership today! Click Here to Learn More