Cherokee Day?
Duke junior center Alison Day was pegged with that nickname after pouring in a career-high 22 points to power the Blue Devils (5-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) past Florida State 84-68 Wednesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Day went 8-of-11 from the floor. She earned the comparison to men's center Cherokee Parks from her teammates by sinking her only three-point shot of the game midway through the second half.
"Sometimes I just feel the urge to shoot it from out there," Day said. "[Tonight] I felt very confident in my outside shot."
Day's teammates weren't the only ones with plaudits for her performance. Florida State head coach Marynell Meadors said that while all the Blue Devils executed well, Day's night set her apart.
"She had an All-American day," Meadors said. "I've always known she was a great shooter. She proved that tonight."
As a team, the Blue Devils shot the ball well from inside and out. Duke made 59.6 percent of its shots, including a sweltering 67.9 percent in the second half.
The larger Duke front line of Day, Carey Kauffman and Tyish Hall accounted for much of the damage. Kauffman was slowed by a stomach virus serious enough that Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors didn't know if she could play until the afternoon. Nevertheless, Kauffman found her rhythm from the field in the second half, scoring 12 of her 14 points after the break. Hall chipped in 12 of her own against a Florida State front line with no starter over 6-1.
"We broke down defensively," Meadors said. "We wanted to pressure the ball, deny inside. Tonight we didn't do those things. Their size had something to do with that. They're much larger than we are."
Instead, it was the Duke defense that turned up the heat. Trailing 20-18 midway thought the first half, the Blue Devils switched to a man-to-man defense. The result was a 23-6 run that broke the game open before halftime.
"We were too worried about where we were in the zone," Gail Goestenkors said. "The switch sparked our offense."
Duke recorded 10 steals for the game. Many of those takeaways resulted in easy baskets for the Blue Devils. The backcourt combo of Kira Orr and Jennifer Scanlon recorded four assists apiece. The guards each tossed in 12 points to put all five Duke starters in double figures.
"When we play good defense, we know we're going to get some steals," Goestenkors said. "When we get steals, we're off to the races. We're on the attack, so the kids are used to that. They're used to getting steals and they expect to score. When we get turnovers, we expect to score."
One player whose defense helped the Blue Devils coast during the second half was Hall.
"She makes up for a lot," Goestenkors said. "She changes a lot of shots. She gets her hands on a lot of passes."
Hall and the Blue Devils did make a conscious effort to keep their hands off of the Seminoles. Goestenkors said after the game that the team had talked in practice about keeping FSU off the free-throw line.
It worked. Florida State did not take a single free throw during the first half, when it was outscored at the line, 13-0. The Seminoles (3-3, 0-1 ACC) didn't make a trip to the charity stripe until the 12:52 mark of the ballgame.
"Coming into the game, we knew that they went to the line a lot," Day said. "Our scouting report said something about them getting 30 percent of their points, or maybe even higher, from the foul line. So we knew that we had to play smart, especially in the post with Zeki [Blanding] being out, and we didn't know if Carey was going to be 100 percent."
Goestenkors said that Kauffman seemed to have trouble staying focused due to her illness, but that she still managed to come back and play a good game. Duke has 10 days off before its next game, which should allow the team to get healthy and add some pieces to its game plan. Goestenkors said the Blue Devils are right on schedule despite the team's loss earlier in the season to Old Dominion.
"I felt like we could be undefeated at this point in time, but I was happy with the way the kids responded from the loss," Goestenkors said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.