After 23 minutes of play in last night's game against Clemson, the women's basketball team was in trouble.
Taking advantage of a sputtering Duke offense, No. 16 Clemson took a 10-point lead early in the second half, seemingly poised to snatch a pivotal victory from the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Then the skies opened up and the bombs began raining down.
Fueled by Nicole Erickson's six three-pointers and 25 points in the second half, the 12th-ranked Blue Devils (14-4, 6-0 in the ACC) exploded for 53 points in the final 20 minutes and turned away a feisty Clemson (13-3, 4-3) team, 86-77, to extend their winning streak to a season-high nine games.
"This ain't much fun coming up here to North Carolina," Clemson coach Jim Davis said. "For 12 years in Lady Tiger basketball, we've prided ourselves on being able to guard people; tonight we didn't guard anybody.
"I'm not very smart, but if we let them stand out there flat-footed and nail 'em, you can't beat anybody. Every game where we score 77 points is supposed to be a win, but not tonight."
After Clemson grabbed its largest lead of the game at 41-31 three minutes into the second half, the Duke offense came alive. Erickson drained four triples in a span of six minutes and helped her team regain a 55-53 lead with her fourth three of the half.
Although Clemson
"Clemson did a great job on us defensively," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "In the second half, we did a much better job attacking the basket and finding the open player, which many times was Nicole, and she did a great job of knocking it down. I'm just elated we were able to come away with a win."
Erickson's heroics from behind the three-point line, however, would have been for naught if the Blue Devils had not been equally proficient from the free-throw line down the stretch. In the game's final six minutes, the Blue Devils sealed the win by knocking down 17-of-19 from the charity stripe.
"This was a great opportunity for us to show how mentally tough we were," Goestenkors said. "I told the team at halftime that I thought Clemson was being mentally and physically tougher than we were. In the second half, we were very tough, especially down the stretch."
It took some time, however, before the Duke offense began clicking. In the first half, the Blue Devils mostly stood around the perimeter and watched Georgia Schweitzer take outside jumpers. That strategy worked to a certain extent, as Schweitzer hit 5-of-7 shots and the Blue Devils led for most of the first half.
But led by center Nikki Blassingame, the Tigers kept the game close and eventually took the lead with four minutes left in the first half. Blassingame consistently found success with foul-line jumpers, scoring a career-high 25 points and hauling down 12 rebounds.
"I told our team to keep [Clemson's posts] on the outside, because they're not very effective shooters normally from that area," Goestenkors said. "They hit every one of those shots.... Once they started hitting those shots, it took us too long to adjust. They're so strong, so athletic, and they just keep coming at you; they wore us down."
In the end, however, it was Erickson and her teammates' blistering touch from the outside that eventually wore down the Clemson defense.
"They're a talented basketball team; I don't care what you say," said Davis of the Blue Devils. "I know they've lost to some good teams, but I don't see them getting many losses in our league. If they play like they did tonight, there's no question they're the best team in the league."
Notes: Last night's crowd of 3,643 marked a season high in home attendance for the Blue Devils.... Duke will hit the road Sunday for a 1 p.m. tilt with N.C. State, who upset Connecticut on its way to an Elite Eight appearance in last season's NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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