It hardly matters to the women's basketball team that Thursday night's victory was not pretty. The Blue Devils won a 57-53 contest over Maryland, and Duke wanted a win any way it could get it.
"It was the ugliest game we've played this year," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I was very disappointed in our overall effort... It was an ugly game all the way around. I was just happy we got away with a win."
After falling to conference foes N.C. State and Virginia last week by a combined three points, Duke (13-3, 2-2 in the ACC) survived a late-game surge by the Terrapins (6-6, 1-2 in the ACC) Thursday evening. The Blue Devils increased their lead to 15 points with 8:36 remaining in the game. Maryland's Sonia Chase sparked the Terp run, scoring 11 points down the stretch.
"Sonia Chase really carried us, and I'm not talking about points," Maryland head coach Chris Weller said. "Sonia played a great game all over the court. She was a great leader; she played great defense. She actually had to go ahead and be the scorer since other people weren't stepping up."
Duke barely managed to prevent the Terrapins from taking over the ballgame, as the Blue Devils scored just eight more points after the 49-34 lead. A Chase three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining put Maryland within two points. Soon, a familiar scenario arose. Junior guard Kira Orr was sent to the line with 15 seconds remaining, and her team only held a two-point advantage.
On Monday against No. 8 Virginia, Orr stood at the line with six seconds remaining, and the score was tied. After draining the first shot, Orr missed the second. The ball was soon in the hands of Cavalier Tora Suber, who drove the length of the court to win the game for UVa.
"Virginia--that was the only thing that was going through my mind," Orr said. "Sonia Chase even said on the line, Just like Virginia.' I was just focusing so hard on the basket. I just kept thinking,I don't want to do it two times in a row.' I was happy the shot went in."
This time, Orr sealed the victory with both of the shots from the charity stripe.
"When [Chase] hit the last three-point basket, that was the first time when I became worried and started to think, `Oh no. We need to be mentally and physically tough and we need to finish here,'" Goestenkors said. "That's the positive that comes out of this--we did finish. We hit the buckets we needed to hit, hit the free throws we needed to hit."
The Blue Devils played a lackluster first half, never quite seeming to be in sync. After two early leads, Duke fell behind merely five minutes into the game and did not regain a lead until almost 10 minutes later. The shots weren't falling for the Blue Devils, but 14 defensive rebounds in the opening half kept Duke within shooting distance of the Terrapins.
Senior center Alison Day contributed all of her 11 points in the opening half, despite being swarmed by Maryland's defense. But it took six of her teammates to pour in the rest of Duke's 31 points to achieve a seven-point lead at halftime.
"I felt like the kids played like they were mentally and physically fatigued," Goestenkors said. "At halftime we talked about that and that great teams fight through their fatigue and dig a little bit deeper."
The halftime talk worked, at least for the first part of the second half. Junior forward Tyish Hall blasted out with two quick baskets, which were followed by three Blue Devil three-pointers. A blowout seemed in order after senior guard Jennifer Scanlon stole the ball from the Terps, rushed the length of the court and launched a jump shot from 15 feet out. The crowd erupted as the referee blew his whistle for a foul.
"Early on in the second half, we started off well," Goestenkors said. "We had a chance to put Maryland away. We did not. We let them back in the basketball game. I have to give credit to Maryland too because they fought back."
The Blue Devils will have a chance to get some much-needed rest today, but they will square off against Wake Forest in another crucial ACC matchup on Sunday in Winston-Salem.
"We'll take [Friday] off and then get ready for Wake Forest because I know Wake Forest will be ready for us."
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