On Wednesday night, the age-old legend of David and Goliath was replayed on the floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium-only this time around, the victor's weapon of choice was not a slingshot but a basketball.
Led by the backcourt duo of senior Kira Orr and sophomore Hilary Howard, the women's basketball team overcame adversity to edge out North Carolina State with a 96-95 overtime victory.
N.C. State's twin towers of 6-foot-3 Chastity Melvin and 5-foot-11 Umeki Webb dominated in the paint, but 5-foot-6 Orr and 5-foot-7 Howard launched missiles from both the perimeter and the inside with deadly accuracy to topple the Wolfpack.
"[Orr] and Hilary really did a lot of damage," N.C. State coach Kay Yow said. "The two of them really fought back; they played a big hand in their winning."
With 9.1 seconds left and Duke behind 86-83, the pressure was on the Blue Devils, but Orr, the crafty senior, refused to crack. Arching the ball over the defense of Melvin and Webb, Orr nailed a three-pointer from way downtown with 2.1 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
"At halftime [Duke coach Gail Goestenkors] told me to stop fading away from the basket on my shot and attack more, to get more of an attack mindset," Orr said. "It made all the difference in the world."
The difference showed in Orr's scoring output, which more than tripled in the second half. It showed in her driving layups, in her determined defense and most of all, in the 25-foot bomb at the end of regulation that staved off a Wolfpack sweep of Duke.
While Orr's final three was undoubtedly the single biggest shot of Wednesday night's matchup, Howard continually provided the spark that the Blue Devils needed to stay in the game. With 7:42 left in the first half, she dialed long distance to reduce Duke's deficit to one point. N.C. State's LySchale Jones responded with a layup, but Howard drained her second trey in 25 seconds to even the score.
Howard came through in the clutch once again in overtime, sinking a driving layup with 3:11 left on the clock to give Duke a seemingly comfortable lead of six points, its largest lead of the night. The Wolfpack almost caught up, though, coming within one point and threatening to take the game as N.C. State's Katie Smrcka-Duffy stepped up to the charity stripe in a one-and-one situation looking for the win. Luckily for the Blue Devils, the freshman guard missed the first shot. And once again it was Howard to the rescue, as she grabbed the rebound and lofted a pass to Orr, who dribbled out the remaining 11.2 seconds to preserve the Duke win.
"I was trying to be aggressive and penetrate," Howard said. "I just wanted to get into the middle and make things happen. I just got some good looks at the basket."
For both Howard and Orr, Wednesday's matchup was one for the record books. Howard tallied a career-high 22 points, surpassing her former mark by six.
In what Goestenkors described as Orr's best performance during her entire four years at Duke, Orr notched her first double-double, with a career-high 32 points and 12 rebounds.
Wednesday's contest was a role reversal of sorts for Duke, as its usually invincible frontcourt seemed to falter a bit. Webb, Melvin and Jones frustrated the Blue Devils' frontcourt forwards with their stifling defense in the paint.
Sophomore center Payton Black and senior forward Tyish Hall each tallied a respectable 14 points, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Black's overall shooting effort was a meager 5-for-18 from the field. Hall, who averaged 6.1 rebounds per game prior to Wednesday night, only grabbed two boards all game before fouling out late in the second half.
The emergence of the Blue Devil backcourt couldn't have come at a better time. Due to Duke's somewhat lackluster performance in the paint, the fate of the game rested on its perimeter players. Orr and Howard stepped up admirably and showed the Wolfpack what Duke basketball is all about.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.