When the women's basketball team opened its Christmas present, it was hoping for the last Tickle Me Elmo. Instead it received a much less exciting present-a mirror.
"We have seen that we can be one of the best teams but we have also seen that we can be not so good," sophomore point guard Hilary Howard said.
During a six-game holiday stretch during which the No. 14 Blue Devils survived with a 3-3 record, Duke experienced a roller coaster of emotions. The Blue Devils (11-4 overall, 3-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) started the break with a visit to Greensboro, N.C.
In the Big Four Classic, Duke commenced the siesta with a 74-36 thrashing of Rutgers. In a game where every Blue Devil played except the Blue Devil himself, senior forward Tye Hall led all scorers with 16 points. Four days before the holiday season, Hall returned from a pelvis injury. Although currently only at 90%, Hall has used the break games to work herself back into playing shape.
"I'm not sucking wind quite as much," Hall said. "I had to get that mental mind set back. Now I'm looking to be more aggressive both offensively and defensively."
In the finals of the Big Four, George Washington shocked the Blue Devils 54-48. Duke played less than stellar in the first stanza against the Colonials, as it scored a mere 14 points on only 3-of-23 shooting.
"We had dug ourselves into such a hole that our backs were against the wall," Howard said. "It was the worst half of our season."
On January 3, the Blue Devils returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium to host Florida State. The return trip down I-85 must have possessed some magical force as the old Duke returned. Duke earned its second conference victory with a 87-46 scalping of the Seminoles. Senior shooting guard Kira Orr led all scorers with 21 points in only 26 minutes. The game also featured freshman Peppi Browne's entry into the starting lineup.
"We played great against FSU," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "We had the intensity and emotion that we lacked against George Washington... Peppi gives us a more athletic look with greater defensive pressure to start the game."
Three days later, the Blue Devils traveled to Charlottesville for perhaps the biggest game of the break against then-No. 13 Virginia. Duke jumped to an early lead when it held the Cavaliers scoreless for a seven-and-a-half minute stretch during the middle of the first half. The end of the half, however, was a different story. Virginia point guard Tora Suber led the charge back with a steal and two easy layups. Virginia seized a 21-20 lead at intermission.
Even though the Blue Devils led the Wahoos by five with five minutes left in the game, Suber wasn't done quite yet. She hit a big three from the left corner that cut the deficit to two. After the lead changed hands twice, Virginia's Mimi McKinney put the Cavaliers ahead for good by completing both ends of a one-and-one. UVa led 52-51 and would never relinquish the lead again en route to a 62-55 victory.
"Against UVa, we had our best defensive effort of the season, but our offense was not as good," Goestenkors said. "UVa had a lot of easy transition buckets as they scored 25 points off turnovers."
After dropping the heartbreaker at Virginia, Duke returned home to play conference foe Wake Forest on Jan. 9. The Demon Deacons hung close with the Blue Devils until late in the game when Duke's defensive pressure and frontcourt eventually sunk the Deacs. The Blue Devils cruised to a 82-70 victory. In arguably her best game of the season, Hall tallied 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting and 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Fellow front court stalwart sophomore Payton Black chipped in 15 points. Since Hall's return, the offense has had to adjust to the presence of 6 foot-3 and 6-foot-4 players in the middle.
"I think Payton and I add some leeway," Hall said. "We work well high-low together. No one is worried about getting points. We work from a partnership."
On Sunday, Duke traveled to College Park to play Maryland. The Terrapins stormed to a 26-20 halftime lead largely courtesy of Duke's 6-of-22 shooting. With 6:09 remaining in the second half, Maryland led Duke 56-43. The Blue Devils, however, turned up the defensive pressure and cut the lead to five with 1:43 left. Howard produced her season high of 16 points. But it was not to be as Maryland's Kim Bretz nailed four free throws late in the game to secure the 68-64 Terp win.
"We played uninspired basketball against Maryland," Goestenkors said. "We had no emotion and little intensity. We saw a glimpse of what we could do in the last five minutes with our defense, but that 5 minutes is not good enough to win our games."
Having emerged from the holidays bruised and a little banged, the Blue Devils began the second semester far from dire straits. The players may be some of the few students actually ready for classes to begin.
"Over break all we do is basketball," Hall said. "It sounds great, but when you don't have anything else to do, you tend to pick apart everything on the court. I think it will be good for us to get back to worrying about class."
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