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Game commentary
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Women's hoops finds confidence in late-game heroics**
WINSTON-SALEM--No matter what the score is, no matter how much time is left on the clock, the greatest basketballteams believe that they can win.
In its past four conference games, the No. 16 women's basketball team has proven to the rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference that it is one of those great teams. In each of those contests, Duke trailed at some point. Two of those games were eventually added to the win column. In the other two, Duke showed the heart to stay in the game until the final buzzer.
"I think we've got a lot of heart," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I think that when our backs are against the wall, we come back fighting. Some games are not going to start off well, and you always want them to, but [they] don't.
"I think with this team, no matter what point it is in the game, we believe that we can win the game."
Against Maryland Thursday, the Blue Devils trailed for most of the first half, and then blew a 16-point lead in the second half. Then Sunday, Duke was down by eight at halftime against Wake Forest. The deficits didn't matter in either game.
"In both the Maryland game and [the Wake] game, there was no doubt in my mind that we would not lose," senior Jennifer Scanlon said.
There's a fine line between cockiness and confidence, and Scanlon's talk falls on the side of the latter. Wake Forest head coach Karen Freeman said that at the end of Sunday's game the difference was that Duke had more experience in late-game situations. Freeman's own team scored only four points in the final 3:17, causing a one-point Blue Devil lead to be stretched into a 10-point win.
"When it came down to crunch time, they hit some big shots and we didn't," Freeman said of Sunday's finale. "Duke is a confident team--they are coming off of a good year last year, and they've played some pretty tough games already, losing a couple close ones. When you've been there before, it's easier to get back into a ballgame."
Duke nailed six straight free throws to seal Sunday's win. Junior Kira Orr, who has been at the line in pressure situations in the Blue Devils' past three contests, made the first four. Senior Alison Day made the final two. That success is a total turnaround from just one week ago, when both Orr and Day missed the back ends of 1-and-1 to set up Tora Suber's game-winning layup.
The ACC is filled with numerous top-25 teams this year. Clemson was undefeated and nationally-ranked before being smoked by North Carolina two days ago. The Tar Heels have traditionally been a top power, and even with super guard Marion Jones redshirting, are loaded with talent. Duke has four games against those two teams, and 11 more conference games overall, most of which can be expected to be close ballgames.
If the Blue Devils are going to compete in the ACC, they will have to be able to pull out the big games down the stretch. Two years ago, the Blue Devils lacked the confidence to do that. With three conference games left in the 1993-94 season, Duke was 7-6 in the conference, primed to finish above .500 in the ACC and hoping for a chance at a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Blue Devils lost those three games and were blown away by Maryland in the first round of the ACC tournament. As a result, they did not receive an invitation to the NCAAs.
Last year, things changed. Duke won some of the close ones--a two-point win over third-ranked North Carolina and a one-point, overtime victory in the ACC tournament semifinals over top-seeded Virginia. Those two wins proved to the players that they could win the close games. Even a quadruple-overtime loss to Alabama was a sign that Duke had regained confidence in themselves.
So far this season, Duke has won a majority of the close games. True, the Blue Devils lost to N.C. State and Virginia. But against the Wolfpack, they fought back from a 16-point deficit to take a lead. And the Cavalier contest could have gone either way.
Two things happen when a team faces a huge defeat. Either it self-destructs and goes into a downslide, or it pulls together and rises to the occasion. The Blue Devils of 1995-96 have chosen the latter.
Before the season, every player said she had more confidence than before. That's great news for Blue Devil fans. And that's bad news for the rest of the ACC.
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