TUSCALOOSA, Ala.--It might not have been as memorable as some of the plays on the court. But it was a touching moment nonetheless.
After Duke's 121-120 loss to Alabama in four overtimes Saturday in the NCAA tournament, sophomore point guard Kira Orr sat in the press room talking about the marathon that had just ended. As she spoke, the anguish was evident in her voice. She looked down and tried to summon the words for what had taken place, but it was clearly too early for Orr to step back and appreciate the game.
Orr attempted to describe the play at the end of regulation, when, seconds after Orr was called for a charge to negate a potential game-clinching basket, Alabama's Niesa Johnson hit an off-balance 24-footer with two seconds left, taking the game to overtime.
"I just think to myself that maybe I should have denied her the ball, maybe I should have played up closer on her," Orr said, with her voice cracking slightly. "When she threw it up, I was just like, `I can't believe I let her get the shot off.' It went in, and there it was, another overtime.
"I take a little bit of blame, because I knew that she was the one that wanted to look for it, and I should not have let her get the ball in her hands. But what happened, happened."
At that point Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors, sitting directly to Orr's right, leaned over and patted her star point guard on the back. It was a small gesture, but after a game as long, emotional and ultimately heartbreaking as this one, the gesture spoke volumes.
It spoke of Goestenkors' pride in her point guard and her team, and it spoke of her close bond with her floor general. And, silently, it told Orr absolutely not to dwell on what she did or did not do in that defensive series.
Orr had just dropped in a career-high 30 points, including 24 after halftime. She had been in on nearly every key play as the game wore on, so for her, the "what ifs" were painful to recall.
For example, what if, with 18.8 seconds left in regulation Orr had not been called for the charge? Or, since it was such a close call, what if a foul had been whistled on the defense?
What if she had denied the ball from reaching Johnson at the end? Or what if she had not been called on a foul for what she said was minimal contact with two seconds left in the first overtime? The foul led to Johnson's game-tying free throws and took the contest to a second overtime.
Then again, what if she had not hit any of those clutch jumpers in the overtimes to keep Duke on top or to help her team fight back? And what if she had committed more than four turnovers in her 51 minutes of running the point against Alabama's frenetic pressing defense?
"She made big plays," Johnson said of Duke's 5-6 sparkplug. "She scored when we thought we had the lead and it was comfortable, and we always looked up and it was back to one or we were down by two. It was because of her, and a couple of their post players stepped outside and made big plays."
And during the game, Orr did not only contribute with her points and ballhandling. She also helped the team keep its sanity.
"One time I asked what overtime we were in--I didn't know," Duke center Alison Day said. "We'd sit on the bench [in between overtimes], and someone would just joke about stuff. Kira would always say something funny."
As Orr put it, "what happened, happened." There was no use dwelling on what could have been. In a game like Saturday's, that would take way too long. But it still was an incredibly hard loss to swallow.
"By the fourth overtime, I lost count," Orr said. "I just kept thinking I wanted it to end. Each time, at the end of regulation and overtime, I kept thinking, `We've got this locked up. We're going to win this.' But something would happen. They just didn't back down."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.