Women's hoops plows through Classic field

The women's basketball team used stifling defense and a lethal fast break to capture the 1995 Duke Women's Basketball Classic. Led by juniors Tyish Hall and Kira Orr and senior Jennifer Scanlon, the Blue Devils easily handled both of their opponents on their way to the title.

Duke (6-1) thrashed Delaware in the opener, 95-50, and it followed that up with a 67-52 victory over Michigan State in the finals. Orr and Scanlon were named to the all-tournament team, and Hall was named most valuable player of the tournament.

From the outset, it was clear that Duke had come to play. Against Delaware, Duke jumped out to a 13-2 lead three minutes into the game. Using a high-pressure man-to-man defense, the Blue Devils steadily widened the margin by scooping up loose balls and converting them into fast break baskets.

With seven minutes to go in the half, Orr went a tear that included a steal, an assist and three transition layups to put Duke ahead by 22 points. A Scanlon three-pointer near the end of the half gave the Blue Devils a 45-21 advantage at the intermission.

In the second half, Duke turned to its outside game to polish off the Fightin' Blue Hens. Scanlon and freshman Nazrawit Medhanie rained three-pointers down on Delaware to push the Duke lead into the 30s. Scanlon and Medhanie each finished with 18 points and four three pointers to lead the Blue Devils in scoring.

"When we start moving the ball around, we have a lot of different threats," Scanlon said. "I think our inside game opens that up a lot."

Duke's lead stretched to 41 when Orr stole the ball with nine minutes left to go in the game. The 5-foot-6 junior raced down the floor and delivered a behind-the-back pass to Medhanie for the layup, much to the delight of the 500 people in attendance. Orr had an excellent all-around game, with 12 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals.

"I really took it on my shoulders," Orr said. "At both ends, it starts with me. If I can get it going, everybody else can feed off me."

"We did a great job on defense today," Scanlon said. "We put an emphasis on that."

Goestenkors was able to play much of her bench against Delaware, which gave freshmen Payton Black and Takisha Jones a chance to shine. Black had 13 points and Jones added eight in the victory.

"Takisha and Payton played great," Goestenkors said. "They're coming along, and that's good to see."

Michigan State, with its considerable depth, was supposed to be a much tougher opponent on Sunday. It certainly didn't look that way after the tipoff. The Blue Devils piled up a 19-2 lead in the first eight minutes of the game after Orr made an acrobatic layup, drew a foul and made the free throw.

Duke's defense was stunning in the first half against the Spartans. Michigan State took more than 12 minutes to break into double figures, and had 12 turnovers in the first half alone. Duke took advantage of this to take a 42-22 halftime lead into the locker room.

"Our defense was excellent," Goestenkors said. "We really had them thoroughly confused. I couldn't have asked for a better half of basketball."

More than anything, though, the first half was the Ty Hall Show. Hall was unstoppable inside, scoring eight of Duke's first 12 points. At halftime, she had 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor, as well as five rebounds and two blocks.

"Ty is demanding the ball inside this year," Goestenkors said. "Last year on offense, she was hiding. She's not this year."

But Duke looked comatose at the start of the second half. Orr fired an airball from three-point range, and Day threw an easy pass out of bounds. Both miscues led to Michigan State baskets.

"We came out flat as a pancake," Goestenkors said.

After a quick timeout, it appeared that the Blue Devils were back on track. A pair of inside buckets from Day made the score 51-29 with 13:35 left to play. Four minutes later, Coggeshall made a layup to give Duke a 24-point lead, their biggest of the game.

Michigan State would not quit, however. Behind two three-pointers from Jamie Wesley, the Spartans went on a 14-0 run to cut the lead to 10 with 4:38 left to play. Duke called a timeout to regroup.

"We got an early lead, and the team lost some of their focus," Goestenkors said. "They thought it was going to be much tighter."

Duke regained its composure after the timeout and finished off the pesky Spartans in the final minutes. A driving layup by Orr, a jumper by Coggeshall and a free throw by Scanlon stretched the lead out to 15 with 1:34 to play. Orr then buried a three-pointer in the final minute to make the score 65-47 and seal up the championship for the Blue Devils.

Hall finished the game with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks for Duke. She led the Blue Devils in scoring (15 points a game), rebounding (9 per game) and blocks (3 per game) for the tournament. Both she and Goestenkors cited a new assertiveness around the basket as the reason for her outstanding performance.

"I'm turning and shooting instead of trying to do 50 million moves," Hall said. "I've been trying to get double figures each game to help the team out."

"I think that's good, because she should," Goestenkors said. "She never takes a bad shot."

Championship aside, Duke realizes what it has to do in order to succeed during the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference season. The Blue Devils will begin conference play Wednesday against Florida State in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"The biggest problem now is trying to put the whole game together and not let down at any point," Hall said.