The Clemson Tigers were jacked up and ready to play Duke on their "Pack The House" night, complete with Itoro Coleman bobblehead dolls, Coleman, the second year coach who is in the third trimester of her fourth pregnancy, had her team ready to battle Duke inside and force them to make shots. The Tigers fired up their crowd with a 9-4 run to start the game that featured 2 blocks by post Lindsey Mason and 7 points by promising young players Nikki Dixon and Quinyotta Pettaway. Duke took that initial punch in stride and simply went about their business, as Haley Peters hit a high post jumper, Tricia Liston had a steal & dish to Chelsea Gray in transition, and Peters found Elizabeth Williams inside for one of Duke's many connecting passes. 23 of Duke's 34 field goals came by way of assist, an impressive figure that was not achieved strictly through transition play. Indeed, it was the connecting passes from high post to low post or from low post to perimeter that carved the Tigers up from beginning to end. Clemson did take the lead back at 11-10, but Chelsea Gray hit a three. When the Tigers tied it up at 13, Gray found Liston for a three. Peters came up with a steal and threw a bomb to Williams that she essentially outran before picking it up to score. Dixon hit a three to make it 18-16 with nine minutes to go, but things were starting to slip away for the Tigers.

Shay Selby stepped into a long jumper and Allison Vernerey hit a hook shot to make it 22-16. The two teams traded baskets to keep things close; with 5:23 left in the half, the Tigers only trailed by 3. Then that young squad completely fell apart in the last five minutes of the half as Duke pounded on them. Williams found Peters for a reverse and then drove right up the middle for a score. Gray followed that up with a steal and dish to RIcha Jackson. After Clemson's last bucket of the half at the 3:20 mark, Duke scored the last 9 points of the half. Peters hit another reverse and scored in transition. Gray found Peters inside. With 30 seconds left in the half and their offense stalling a bit with multiple subs playing, Jackson had what may have been the biggest play of the game: a three point play where she somehow managed to split the defense and draw contact on her way to the basket. That gave Duke a 40-24 bulge at the half and complete control of the game. Clemson had 12 turnovers and Duke made them pay to the tune of a 15-2 edge in points off turnovers. Duke was getting the ball inside (28-12 advantage in points in the paint) and was running Clemson ragged (+8 on fast break points). Williams had 11 points and 5 blocks by halftime, while Peters had 8 points. The other starters had 5 points apiece in a typical show of balance for the team.

Duke made sure Clemson wasn't going to come back right away in the second half, but the Tigers were able to prevent things from getting worse for the first four minutes of the half. Duke's lead stayed at 16 at the sixteen minute mark, 48-32. The Tigers would only score 5 more points the rest of the way, while piled up 33 more points. Duke could sense that Clemson was starting to wear down just trying to keep up and they were ready for the knockout punch. That started with a Selby steal that led to an easy Gray basket and concluded with back-to-back treys by Selby and Liston to make it 58-32. After that, the subs got extensive playing time. Even walk-on Jenna Frush played for four minutes. Duke won every statistical battle in this game: FG% (52 to 28%), points off turnovers (33-3), rebounds (43-30), points in the paint (48-20), fast break points (10-2) and second chance points (14-9). No one player more than 28 minutes for Duke, who will now return home to face UConn. More importantly, they go to 8-0 in the ACC (one game ahead of Miami) and avoided a potential trap game against a motivated opponent.

Top Performers:

1. Tricia Liston: 16 points, 2 rebounds, 3 steals
2. Haley Peters: 12 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 0 turnovers
3. Elizabeth Williams: 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocks