ROCK HILL, S.C.--During the last two games of the regular season, Duke point guard Kira Orr was a combined 5-for-31 from the floor.
Orr finally got her shooting back on track this weekend, as she led the women's basketball team all the way to the finals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Orr scored 24 points--all after halftime--in Duke's shocking overtime victory over Virginia Saturday afternoon.
However, Orr will not likely be remembered for many of her two dozen points in the semifinal matchup. She will be remembered for just two key jumpers--a pair of buzzer-beaters--that lifted the Blue Devils over UVa.
No. 6 Virginia was a favorite to win the tournament after finishing the regular season undefeated in conference play. And after the first half, it seemed as if the Cavs were well on their way to that championship title. Duke hit only eight of its 26 field goal attempts, notching a measly 20 points in the half, compared to Virginia's 40.
"Once we took the floor in the second half we believed we could win," junior center Alison Day said. "We were really embarrassed at halftime. We weren't ready to play."
Duke mounted the comeback of all comebacks, battling back from a deficit that reached as many as 22 points in the first half, to knock off the league's No. 1 seed in a thriller that went down to the wire--twice.
Orr took charge of the Duke offense during the second half. Instead of running the usual set offenses that head coach Gail Goestenkors was screaming from the sidelines, the point guard would instead call out for her teammates to set screens as she drove to the basket or shot jumpers.
It was Orr's clutch play that will be remembered for years to come. With less than two minutes left, Duke still faced a massive 12-point deficit. But Orr scored 11 points for the Blue Devils in the next minute--while UVa only notched one free throw--to bring Duke within two.
"[Kira] would not be denied," Goestenkors said. "There's a point of time in a game when you need someone to step up and say, `We will not lose this game.' And that's exactly what she did."
With five seconds left, Virginia's Amy Loftstedt nailed a three-pointer to put the Cavs up by three. Orr dribbled the ball downcourt and launched a 25-footer at the buzzer, which sailed through the net to send the game into overtime.
During the extra period, the game remained close. And once again, it came down to a last-second situation with the ball in Orr's hands. The Blue Devils were down by one, this time with six seconds left.
"I thought we should have kept Orr from catching the ball," Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan said. "We maybe could have doubled her."
But the Cavaliers didn't double-team Orr. And it was a classic case of deja vu--Orr dribbling down the court, with the clock ticking away. This time, the guard unleashed a 15-footer--with ACC Player of the Year Wendy Palmer right in front of her--as the buzzer sounded. The shot fell through for the shocking upset.
With the win, the Blue Devils proved that they are a team worthy of a national ranking. Duke will likely go to the NCAA tournament for only the second time ever. And the win over Virginia also marked the first time that the Blue Devils have won more than one game in an ACC tournament.
"Hopefully we showed people across the country that we are a program on the rise and a program to be reckoned with," Goestenkors said. "Our team played with so much heart, so much hustle and so much intensity in this three-day period that people will have to step back and say we're for real."
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