With less than one minute left in its last regular-season home game against No. 10 N.C. State (20-5, 11-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference), the women's basketball team stood one point away from making history. One jump shot and two free throws later, the 11th-ranked Blue Devils (19-6, 12-3 in the ACC) had gone where no Duke women's basketball team had gone before.
After a nail-biting 65-62 victory last night at Cameron, the Blue Devils were guaranteed at least a share of the ACC regular season title, a feat they have never previously accomplished.
Junior Nicole Erickson nailed a jumper with 55.1 seconds remaining to give Duke a tenuous one-point lead, 63-62. On State's next possession, Tynesha Lewis took the ball down the court. After using up all but six seconds on the shot clock, she passed it to an open LySchale Jones, who failed to take a shot as the 35 seconds expired.
Lewis fouled sophomore Lauren Rice as Duke attempted to run out the clock, and Rice's subsequent free throws put the Blue Devils ahead by three. Lewis and Nailah Wallace attempted to make what would have been the game-tying trifecta. Both, however, only made air balls as the clock ran out and Duke emerged with a 65-62 win.
"I think we panicked a little," N.C. State coach Kay Yow said. "We didn't penetrate and pitch it out. We just tried to take a shot, and in all honesty it looked like about three people stopped that last shot, so that was pretty hard to get that one to the rim."
But clinching a tie for first was only one of four firsts for Duke. For the first time ever, the Blue Devils swept N.C. State, defeated five ranked teams in one season and went undefeated in home conference games. Their 12-1 overall record in Cameron Indoor Stadium gave them a home winning percentage of .925, also a new school record.
Duke tied two records as well, for most wins in Cameron and most ACC wins, with 12 of each.
"This is huge; this is what we've been waiting for since the beginning of the season," junior Hilary Howard said. "We knew that it was going to be a tough game. I'm real proud of all of us because we dug down deep and played the defense in the second half that enabled us to come out with the victory."
The record-shattering win was by no means an easy one. After sophomore Peppi Browne hit a layup with 18:08 left in the first half to tie the game at two apiece, Duke endured a scoring drought of over five minutes, while the Wolfpack ran out to an 8-2 lead.
With 12:42 left, freshman Georgia Schweitzer stole the ball from State point guard Kristen Gillespie and fed it to Erickson, who ended the slump with a running jump shot. From that point on, the Blue Devils went on a 9-2 run to gain the lead for the first time all evening and closed out the half seven points ahead.
"It just got us started," Goestenkors said. "We just started attacking them back. It was what we needed to do."
Duke received some help in the form of free throws. While the Blue Devils went 7-for-8 from the line in the first half, the Wolfpack missed all three of its free-throw attempts in the stanza. Duke went on to shoot 13-of-18 (.722) from the charity stripe on the night, while State was 5-for-15-an abysmal 33 percent.
The second stanza began in a similarly inauspicious fashion for Duke, as the Wolfpack outscored it 10-3 in the first four minutes of the frame and knotted the game at 35 apiece. The Blue Devils' only points during that stretch came on Howard's three-point shot, one of only two Duke treys on the night. All-America candidate Chasity Melvin keyed the run with four points, two assists and a steal. Despite being double- or even triple-teamed throughout most of the game, Melvin recorded her 14th double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"She's going to get her points," Goestenkors said of Melvin. "I thought she played a great game. She played within herself. She passed the ball off when we double-teamed her. We double-teamed her every time she touched the ball.... In my mind, she's an All-American."
With 15:59 remaining in the game, Howard drained a running jumper to wake the Blue Devils up. Behind the solid backcourt play of team high-scorers Howard and Erickson, who tallied 13 points each, Duke built up a 12-point lead, its largest of the game.
But State still would not give up. After a scoreless first half, Lewis ignited the Wolfpack, scoring all 12 of her points in the last 11 minutes of the game and leading her team to a comeback that put the game within reach.
"The team needed me in the first half, and I wasn't there," Lewis said. "They were playing Chasity real well, and the outside shot wasn't working so I just had to penetrate [in the second half]."
Despite Lewis' and Melvin's efforts, N.C. State never regained more than a one-point lead, and the rest is history.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.