For the second time in three games, the No. 12 women's basketball team accomplished something it failed to do last season. The first of those feats was winning at North Carolina. The second came Wednesday night, as the Blue Devils defeated the No. 17 Clemson Tigers 74-63 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Last year, the Blue Devils were swept in the regular season by the Tigers. This year, they avenged the 88-82 overtime defeat at Cameron. With the win, the Blue Devils also won their first game against a top-25 opponent this year. The victory also meant Duke (18-3 overall, 7-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) remained tied for first place in the ACC with Virginia.
For the first 20 minutes, the Tigers' tough defense stymied the Blue Devils and kept them out of sync. Duke was never able to find its powerful inside game, as it was out-rebounded by seven in the first half while also committing nine turnovers. Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors prepared her team for Clemson's defensive effort by initiating a game plan that had the team relying on skip passes.
"What happened in the first half is we [used skip passes] and the opposite wing shot every time she touched the ball," Goestenkors said. "What we need is when the defense comes out and defends [the ball-handler], then we wanted to get the ball inside."
Goestenkors said her team was mentally focused before the game and she thus blamed the turnovers not on a lack of mental preparation, but rather on the Blue Devils trying to force the ball inside when the post wasn't open. So with 3:23 left in the first stanza, the Tigers held an eight-point lead, and the Blue Devils were looking for answers. Duke ended the half on a 13-6 run, capped off by three straight lay-ups, to cut the halftime lead to just one at 37-36.
In the locker room, Goestenkors told her team that despite playing a rather poor first half, it was only down by one point. The only plus for Duke in the first stanza was its 6-for-12 mark beyond the three-point arc. But Goestenkors knew the Blue Devils could not rely on just their outside shot, so she added that the team needed to get back to playing Duke basketball, meaning getting the ball inside.
Duke did just that, as seven of its first nine second-half points were scored by junior forward Tyish Hall. Hall's points helped start a 20-6 Blue Devil run that gave Duke a 56-43 lead with 11:23 left in the game.
"We finally got our act together," said senior center Alison Day "It's been a trend of ours not to play well in the first half. We wanted it to be our game. We wanted to control the tempo and I think that's what we did. We were able to get easier baskets, we were more aggressive on the offensive boards."
Goestenkors said the Blue Devil guards did a great job in the second half of getting the ball inside. The best example of the inside effort was freshman Payton Black--in six minutes, Black scored nine points, all of them either inside the paint or at the free throw line.
"As soon as we skipped the ball, if the post players continued to post up, eventually we would get open," Black said. "I went out there with the mentality of posting up all the time, keep calling for the ball."
Clemson head coach Jim Davis was more than happy with the defensive effort his Tigers gave in the first half. But one of the first questions he was asked in the post-game press conference was if he changed anything in his game plan for the second part of the game. He said nothing changed in the game plan, but rather in how his team followed that plan.
"In the second half, we didn't give the effort that it takes," Davis said. "Our defensive effort wasn't there. It was there for 15 seconds, but we didn't sustain it for the entire possession."
After Duke went on its opening run in the first half, the Tigers went on a run of their own later in the second stanza. Clemson scored seven straight points to cut a 61-50 lead to just four at 61-57 with 6:24 left. Davis said he went to a 2-2-1 press that forced the Blue Devils into making turnovers and taking poor shots.
According to Hall, it was during that run that Duke gathered in a team huddle and decided it was time to stop the Tigers' tear and get on a run of its own. Duke did just that, as Day scored six straight points to push the lead up to 10. Two Clemson free throws put the lead below 10 for the last time at the 3:13 mark. After that, Duke coasted to a win.
The Blue Devils won't have too much time to celebrate their first win over a ranked team. Their next game against a ranked team comes in two days against No. 14 North Carolina in a game Davis thinks will be pivotal not only to Duke's season, but to the results of the ACC.
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