ROCK HILL, S.C.-For the second time in the last two years, the women's basketball team advanced all the way to the finals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
Also for the second time in the past two years, the Blue Devils were outplayed in the championship game. After an impressive 79-62 rout of No. 19 N.C. State on Saturday in the semifinals, No. 12 Duke could not come up with a win over the upstart Tigers, falling 71-54.
"In no way did we match their intensity," junior point guard Kira Orr said of Sunday's loss to Clemson. "They were about 20 times as intense as we were... I kept thinking that we'll come back; we always do come back. Once they got that lead, they really held us off and we couldn't come back."
The Blue Devils have relied on comebacks all season long, but the comeback never came to fruition Sunday. The Tigers controlled the ball from the tipoff and never looked back.
"We came in relaxed and knew what we wanted to accomplish early on," said Clemson's Laura Cottrell, who garnered tournament MVP honors. "I think our defense kind of took over the game the first 10 minutes or so and then they started coming back... When the lead started dwindling... we were going to stand on our feet and take what they had, and we did."
Several times during the game, Duke would fight to bring the lead down to single digits, but Clemson would not go away. Potential Blue Devil runs were often squelched by a key defensive play or a turnover. Clemson committed just six turnovers throughout the game, while Duke amassed 16.
Another key statistic that showed the lack of intensity on the Blue Devils' part was offensive rebounds. Throughout the entire game, Duke collected only four offensive boards. Yes, four-one in the first half and three in the second stanza. Even though the team drained 21-of-47 shots for the game (45 percent), only four times could the Blue Devils put up a second shot.
"I thought it was a fantastic game for Clemson," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They just dominated the basketball game... The way they played defense-they got us out of sync offensively. They did a good job on the boards."
Despite that 45 percent from the field, Clemson kept Duke to just 54 points-remarkably low for a team that averages 76 points per contest. The only other game in which the Blue Devils were held to fewer points was a midseason upset loss at Maryland, in which Duke only put 52 points on the scoreboard.
These numbers provide a sharp contrast to the statistics posted by the Blue Devils who showed up for Saturday's blowout of N.C. State. The Wolfpack swept Duke during the regular season, the only team to achieve that feat. Instead of falling by 17 points, the Blue Devils rocked State for a 17-point victory.
Just as everything fell apart for Duke on Sunday, everything worked for the Blue Devils on Saturday. Goestenkors had used the week off after a Feb. 23 victory over North Carolina to institute a new pick-and-roll offense. The play worked on the Wolfpack all game long, adding up to a combined 39 points for Orr, senior guard Jennifer Scanlon and freshman guard Hilary Howard. Howard also set a career high with nine rebounds.
"This was our best game of the season because it was a total team effort," Orr said of Saturday's win. "Everyone got to play, the scoring was balanced and everyone did what they needed to do for us to win."
Those words meant little after Sunday's game though. Instead of praising the team for its overall effort like she did on Saturday, Goestenkors rattled off a list of "little things" which the Blue Devils could improve upon.
"There were so many times that we needed to get a stop and we did and they got the offensive rebound," Goestenkors said. "We didn't do the job boxing out. We missed some key free throws early on, front ends of one-and-ones. When we needed to execute down the stretch, we did not execute-we lost our patience.
"Those are all things we can take care of... We understand that from here on out every team is going to be a great team. And if we play like we did [Sunday], our season is going to be over after one game."
Prior to the tournament, several ACC coaches mentioned Duke's lack of depth as a factor that could hinder its play in Rock Hill. Instead of suffering from depth problems, though, the Blue Devils actually found new depth. Junior forward Windsor Coggeshall returned to the Blue Devils' lineup for the first time since the Feb. 5 loss to Maryland, while freshman Nazrawit Medhanie provided valuable minutes of play throughout the tournament.
The return of those two players to the lineup might just be the extra spark Duke needs to make a successful run in the NCAA Tournament. However disappointing the loss to Clemson might be for the Blue Devils, Goestenkors hopes that it will only serve as a motivator for the team as it heads into the NCAA Tournament.
"Now we have a little bit of depth and a little bit of versatility," Goestenkors said. "I feel like we have not peaked as a team. We have gone through adversity throughout the season. Now we are finally together. Now it's time for us to peak.
"You saw a glimpse of it [Saturday]-what we could do. [Sunday] we were brought back down to earth. I think we all understand that we have some more basketball to play and some of our best basketball is yet to be played."
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