The 16th-ranked women's basketball team swept the ninth annual Duke Women's Basketball Classic in Cameron Indoor Stadium with a 85-58 victory over Illinois State in Saturday's semifinal round and an emotional 63-46 victory over St. Joseph's during Sunday's championship contest. Proceeds benefitted the Ronald McDonald House of Durham.
During the latter game, it appeared early on that Duke's string of four straight Classic titles was coming to an end: the Blue Devils averaged 25 percent, or 8-of-32, from the field during the first half and went to the locker room down by five, 26-21.
But after what might have been the worst half of play for the Blue Devils (5-0) this season, Duke went on to defeat the Hawks (3-1) by off-setting St. Joe's tough inside game with more aggressive offensive play.
"I'm just glad there's two halves of basketball," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They did a real good job denying the ball, and the initial wing-path. And we weren't setting screens, so everybody was trying to get open on their own. Once we started setting some screens, that gave [senior guard Kira Orr] some really good looks at the basket."
Orr, who was named MVP of the tournament, scored 20 points during the second half alone-equalling the total racked up by the entire Hawks' squad during the latter 20 minutes of play-to give her a game-high 25.
"If we played our basketball, I believed that we could beat this team," Orr said. "But in that first half, we weren't playing Duke basketball. We were back on our heels and pretty much let them dictate how the game was going to go."
The tide of the game turned after Orr hit a three-pointer, the first of Duke's two in the game, at the 16:41 mark to bring the Blue Devils within two, 32-30.
Momentum was sustained until the 10:06 mark, when sophomore center Payton Black banked a field goal inside the paint off of a pretty assist from sophomore guard Hilary Howard to give the Blue Devils the lead for the first time in the contest, 38-36.
Duke never looked back.
The Blue Devils held the lead until the end of the game, outscoring the Hawks 25-8 during the last 8:07 of regulation to hand St. Joe's its first loss of the season.
The Blue Devils also capitalized from the line, sinking 19-of-24 free throws. This, coupled with the fact that Duke committed only 10 personal fouls compared to St. Joe's 22, showed that the Blue Devils remained disciplined throughout the contest.
If the second half of the game belonged to Orr, then the first half belonged to freshman forward Peppi Browne. She scored with 5:57 remaining to bring the Blue Devils within five, 18-13, and then hit two more field goals within the next minute and a half of play, one from the right baseline and the other on a beautiful right-handed layup-moves that gave the Blue Devils momentum and ignited the crowd.
"Offensively, we were standing around," Goestenkors said. "We weren't setting screens for one another. We weren't moving with the ball, without the ball... and we weren't attacking the basket, other than Peppi Browne."
But Browne was most effective at the other end of the floor, garnering six rebounds on the night-just one behind Black, who was the game-leader with seven.
"I think that [Browne's] biggest asset was her defense," St. Joseph's coach Stephanie Gaitley said. "She played such aggressive... defense that it's flustering."
The Blue Devils were also able to wear down forward Megan Compain, the Hawks' leading scorer from last season who scored 22 points but was only 5-of-15 in the second half.
"You look at the score and it was not an indicator of the game it was," Gaitley said. "Four minutes ago, we were holding a four-point lead and I think Megan got tired, and without having Amy Facer in there, we lost a big scoring option."
Although Facer, the Hawks' second-leading scorer, played a total of 15 minutes Sunday, she was 0-of-3 from the field and dished out just two assists, as she suffered from hand injuries sustained during Saturday's semifinal contest against Radford.
"The injuries took her out of the game mentally," Gaitley said. "We're used to having her in the rotation. She's a major go-to player for us."
Saturday's contest saw the Blue Devils in much better form on the whole, as they shot 49.1 percent overall and rolled to a 27-point victory over a less-aggressive Illinois State team (2-3).
After hitting 4-of-7 early in the first half to give it an 11-4 lead, Illinois State was then subjected to a 31-6 Blue Devil run that put Duke up 38-19 at halftime and out of reach for the Redbirds.
The first 20 minutes of play did, in fact, take its toll on Illinois State: fourteen of the Redbirds' game-total 19 turnovers were forced during the first stanza, and the Blue Devils took five of their nine steals during this time as well.
Senior forward Windsor Coggeshall stepped up for the Blue Devils during their first-ever contest against the Redbirds, with a 7-of-11 showing, 3-of-5 of which came from three-point range. Orr and Howard led the Blue Devils in assists with five each.
The Illinois game came three days after a stunning offensive showing by Duke against West Virginia (1-2).
Black pulled down a career high 17 rebounds and scored 21 points-Duke's first double-double performance of the year and Black's career second.
Black's stellar effort, combined with Orr's 19 points and team-leading seven assists, gave Duke an 84-70 win over the Mountaineers.
Black grabbed nine second-half rebounds on her way to 17, which is the highest number for Duke since Carey Kauffman-who graduated in 1995-racked up 19 boards against UNC-Asheville Nov. 30, 1994.
The Blue Devils will meet Old Dominion this Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Central Fidelity Invitational in Richmond, Va., and will then play against either Vanderbilt or Richmond Sunday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.