With five minutes left in Sunday's game against Florida State, women's basketball coach Gail Goestenkors found herself in an uncomfortably familiar position.
Just as in their Jan. 30 game against Maryland, after upsetting a top-10 team, the No. 13 Blue Devils (18-6, 11-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) were tied with an unranked team with time running out in the second half.
But while Lauren Rice missed a long three in the final seconds of the Maryland game, she nailed a three-pointer to break a 57-57 tie and scored seven points in the final five minutes against the Seminoles, keying Duke's 79-67 victory.
Coming off the bench, Rice's notched a career-high 23 points paired with 13 rebounds.
After a close first half, Florida State (8-16, 4-10) led 33-27, the largest lead of the half for either team. The Seminoles were spurred by Latavia Coleman's eight points in the first half and outrebounded the Blue Devils 26-17 in the half.
Florida State's largest lead of 38-31 came shortly after the start of the second half, but Duke began a comeback. The Blue Devils would go on to score 52 points in the half, first closing in on the Seminoles at 13:55.
At that time, Peppi Browne, celebrating her 20th birthday with the paltry 937 fans in attendance, sunk a free throw to tie the game at 41, completing a three-point play.
Florida State continued to fight through the second half, tying the score six times.
It wasn't until Rice's three pointer that the Blue Devils took the lead for good. Duke went on a 13-2 run in the next three and a half minutes, bringing the score to 70-59.
With 50-percent shooting from the field and from behind the arc in the second half, Duke held on for the 79-67 victory. Five Blue Devils finished the game in double digits.
Duke won despite committing 23 turnovers on the night. The Blue Devils won the game largely at the free throw line, where they hit 30 out of 40 attempts.
Duke next faces No. 11 N.C. State in Cameron on Thursday for sole possession of first place in the ACC.
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