At the 13:45 mark in the first half, the No. 17 women's basketball team had committed three more turnovers than the four points it had put on the scoreboard. Duke was down 10 to the Seton Hall Pirates, and it looked as if the Blue Devils' national television debut on ESPN2 would be a bust. Frustrated Blue Devil head coach Gail Goestenkors called her second time-out in three minutes.
"I asked them if they were intimidated," Goestenkors said. "I asked them if they were afraid. I asked them if they were nervous because that was the way they were playing. I questioned them, and they responded."
Duke's answer to its head coach's questions was a 20-6 run, the last points of the run coming on a Jennifer Scanlon driving layup to take a 26-22 lead with 5:21 left in the first half. The Blue Devils never trailed again as they went on to a 76-66 victory.
Goestenkors cited many different reasons for Duke's sluggish start. First, finals are looming. She also mentioned the tough schedule--seven games in the first 16 days of the season--Duke has played without the luxury of a large bench. Still, she said the team had experienced really intense practices, and that the first five minutes the team was making the right decisions, but was just making them a little too slow.
Seton Hall head coach Phyllis Mangina said after that critical timeout that the Blue Devils picked up their intensity, especially on the defensive end of the floor. She credited the Blue Devils' defense with flustering the Pirates' guards. Two Kira Orr steals led directly to the four points which gave Duke its first lead.
"The thing that impressed me most [about Duke] is the way they can turn it up defensively," Mangina said. "They have people who can really get after you, and I think they did that on our perimeter. They made it very difficult to get the ball inside."
The main target the Pirates hoped to find inside was junior Dana Wynne. The 6-foot-1 forward tallied 23 double doubles in 33 games last year. This game, she was guarded by Duke's own junior sensation, Tyish Hall. Hall said after the game her goal was to prevent Wynne from her typical double-double performance. She did just that, as Wynne managed only 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Duke's front line also dominated on the offensive side of the floor. Hall was the leading scorer and rebounder in the game with 26 points and 12 boards. Mangina said her team did everything it could to stop the lanky 6-foot-3 forward from Virginia, but nothing worked.
The Blue Devils entered the locker room at halftime with a rejuvenated spirit and a five-point lead at 38-33. The first five minutes of the second stanza were critical to the game's outcome. The Pirates had some early chances to score, but their shots rimmed out of the basket and ended up on the stats sheet as Duke defensive rebounds. Still, Duke couldn't shake Seton Hall, and saw an eight-point lead cut to four at 45-41 with nearly 16 minutes left in the game. But a Scanlon three-pointer followed by two Alison Day free throws pushed the lead back to nine. Duke was never in trouble again.
Another thing that helped the Blue Devils claim victory was getting the Pirates' insiders into foul trouble. With just under 12 minutes left in the game, both Wynne and Seton Hall's other inside threat, freshman Danielle Golay had three fouls.
At that time, Duke concentrated on getting the ball inside to freshman Payton Black, whom Goestenkors called one of the best players on the team at drawing fouls. Black scored seven points and pulled down four rebounds in nine minutes, giving Duke yet another presence on the inside. Black's final two points of the night gave the Blue Devils their biggest lead at 68-55 with 4:17 left in the game. At that point, the game was as good as over.
Mangina called the Blue Devils one of the best teams her Pirates will play this year, and considered them very deserving of their ranking. Yet what made Duke's performance so impressive is that the Blue Devils were able to stay poised and maintain their confidence to win. Even as Goestenkors signaled for that second timeout of the first half, she knew her team felt it could win.
"If we're behind at the beginning of the game, or the end of the game, I believe that this team will win," Goestenkors said. "They will find a way to win. The team believes that of themselves. Although I was very, very frustrated with the team to begin with, I think they felt they would come around and play well. They never felt the game was getting out of hand and that they couldn't overcome the score."
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