CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-The Virginia women's basketball team had compiled a 92-4 home-game record in this decade prior to Saturday night, including winning its last 65 of 66.
On Saturday night, however, the Duke women's basketball team put another notch in the loss column of the Cavaliers' record at University Hall. Battling back from a 13-point halftime deficit, the No. 14 Blue Devils (20-5, 9-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) used some clutch free-throw shooting in the waning minutes of the game against the Cavaliers (17-5, 8-3 in the ACC) to clinch a 72-69 victory over the No. 9 Wahoos in Charlottesville.
"There is a lot to be said for these players," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They've really improved and now we have the mindset that we can beat Virginia on any given night. That's half the battle with some great teams... It just feels good to be able to beat a team like Virginia on their home floor."
The Blue Devils fought back to knot the score at 65 with just under four minutes remaining in the game, and the teams traded missed free throws-junior forward Tyish Hall missed two for Duke at the 3:10 mark, while Virginia guard Tora Suber failed to connect on the front end of a one-and-one just six seconds later.
UVa grabbed the rebound of Suber's missed shot, but the Cavalier handed the Blue Devils the ball when she was called for a travel on that possession. The turnover gave junior guard Kira Orr an opportunity to break open the tie with a three-pointer as the contest neared the two-minute mark. The trifecta gave the Blue Devils their first lead since an early 4-2 margin.
But Orr's real heroics came in an extremely familiar situation for her. When Virginia defeated the Blue Devils in Durham on Jan. 8, Orr had the opportunity to put the game away with six seconds remaining. In Durham, Orr missed both? shots. She didn't plan on making the same mistake twice.
Freshman Hilary Howard calmly sank two shots from the charity stripe with 40.9 seconds remaining in the contest, giving the Blue Devils a 70-67 lead. Suber responded with another two Cavalier points, but UVa's Jenny Boucek fouled Orr with 12.1 seconds remaining.
"I was shaking," Orr said. "All I was thinking about [after missing the free throws against UVa in Durham], was, 'I wish I could have it back.' And it came back. I had the chance again."
This time, Orr nailed both of her free throws. Virginia called a timeout with 5.6 seconds remaining, but a last-second attempt by Boucek did not fall.
"We didn't think that Boucek would shoot it, so we covered [UVa's Monick] Foote, and I think we double teamed Suber," Orr said. "It worked for us, and we took a chance with [Boucek]. Luckily she missed the shot. "I wasn't concerned. I knew we would win."
To achieve that win, Duke had to bounce back from a horrid first half offensively. It shot a mere 29 percent from the floor-including 1-of-6 from beyond the arc-and totaled 14 turnovers. While the 36-23 deficit was not insurmountable, the Blue Devils knew they needed to step up their game to defeat the Cavaliers.
"At halftime, we talked about playing with pride again," Goestenkors said. "We just didn't do the things in the first half. I said, 'If we're going down, we're going down fighting.'"
UVa maintained its 13-point lead until the 16:08 mark of the second half, when Duke engineered a 12-2 run to bring the Blue Devils within three. The Cavaliers never managed a double-digit lead again, and Duke exploited its inside game to keep the game within its reach.
Hall and freshman Payton Black provided a combined 17 points for the Blue Devils in the second half, all within the seven minutes immediately following the run which cut the lead to three.
"We basically just ran one offense the whole second half," Orr said. "That was basically something that we'd been successful with in the first half, so they never stopped it. We just stuck with what worked, and that got us back in the game."
In the opening half, Suber paced the Cavalier attack, notching 10 points from penetration into the paint. The Blue Devils became flustered from UVa's transition defense, leading to many of the costly 14 turnovers.
"[Against Wake Forest Thursday night], we took them completely out of their game," Goestenkors said. "We wanted to have that same feeling against Virginia. That's why we picked up full-court pressure, put some more defense on Tora Suber-tried to keep the ball out of her hands a little bit more-and disrupt what they wanted to do. In the second half in particular, our defense was just tremendous. We knew sooner or later our offense would catch up with our defense, because we have a good offensive team."
Senior guard Jennifer Scanlon amassed a game-high 19 points for the Blue Devils, followed by Hall and Orr with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Black and Howard, two freshman reserves for Duke, both chipped in 11. Senior center Alison Day, despite being held scoreless, added eight boards for the Blue Devils, while Black led the rebounding effort with nine.
"I always feel very comfortable with Ali in the game, especially down the stretch," Goestenkors said. "She has a calming effect on everybody on the team and I feel like she's going to take care of the basketball, get a key rebound. She's going to be on the floor diving for a basketball... It doesn't matter. She's going to do whatever it takes. It doesn't matter that she didn't score."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.