Blue Devils capture 7th-straight Classic title with big wins

Having nicknamed its season the journey, it may have been appropriate that the women's basketball team showed this weekend that all it needed was a trip home. After blowing out both Villanova and Marquette to claim the Ronald McDonald Duke Women's Basketball Classic title, head coach Gail Goestenkors is about ready to forget her team's early season struggles and pronounce it back on track. "We're starting to feel confident with ourselves," Goestenkors said. "As a team we're getting more confidence. Hilary Howard, even though she didn't shoot particularly well tonight, really played with a lot of confidence. Our offense is getting better. We're getting it bit by bit." Seniors Nicole Erickson and Payton Black each scored 18 points to lead the 20th-ranked Blue Devils (4-3) over the Golden Eagles of Marquette (4-2) 91-60 yesterday in Cameron, clinching Duke's seventh straight tournament title. Facing a tenacious defense that had stunned No. 13 Florida (6-2) the night before, the Blue Devils showed no signs of a letdown against the lower-ranked team, riding a pair of Erickson three-pointers to an early 9-2 advantage. "I just started off playing confidently tonight," said Erickson, whose performance in the final earned her tournament MVP honors. "If I start that way, I can really set the tone for my game. I'm just feeling better with my performance now." For the preseason All-ACC selection, the game marked a turning point of sorts in an up-and-down season. "Nicole is playing with a lot of confidence now," Goestenkors said. "She's a great shooter, and she's the type of player who is going to work harder than anybody else. She's been in a slump recently, but she's just got to shoot herself out, which she is starting to do." Duke parlayed the lead into a double-digit margin, which it held for the rest of the contest after a pair of Black free throws just over 12 minutes into the game. A Peppi Browne layup at the 12:50 mark in the second half capped off a 23-9 run that pushed the lead to 28 points and put the game well out of reach. "We were really pleased with the defense tonight, especially in the second half," Goestenkors said. "When we extended the defense out, we took their guards out of the flow. "Then [the early second-half run] was ignited by our defense. Our intensity in denying the ball really sparked this team... and a big part of the [defensive pressure] is Hilary Howard. It starts with her. When she started picking up defensively fullcourt, we were able to dictate their offense. And I think a lot of that is just the senior in her." It was the same defensive intensity that led Duke over Villanova (2-3) 75-47 in its opening-round game. After trailing for most of the first 15 minutes of the contest, the Blue Devils upped the pressure, quickly turning a one-point deficit into an eight-point halftime advantage. "I was really pleased with the way we played the second half, and the way we played near the end of the first half," Goestenkors said. "We really got after them then." After the break, Goestenkors adjusted her offense to place the emphasis on its post play, as Michele VanGorp, who led the team with 23 points and joined Erickson on the All-Tournament team, went to work against the smaller Wildcat front line. "In the second half I think we realized VanGorp was going to be able to score whenever she got the ball," Goestenkors said. "Then we really started to pound the ball inside to her, and she did a great job for us. In the beginning of the game, we just weren't looking for her enough." If anyone took note of VanGorp's performance, it was Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell, whose Golden Eagle defense held the 6-foot-6 senior to just four points on three shots. However, they were unable to contain her understudy, Black, who poured in 18 points to match Erickson's game-high total. Reserves Naz Medhanie and Peppi Browne added nine points each as the Duke bench outscored the starters 46-45, outdistancing the Golden Eagles' bench by 34 points. "The bench did a great job tonight," Goestenkors said. "I feel really good with the way they can play, and I feel better about it every day."