It took Duke 22 years to win its first ACC regular season title. It took the Blue Devils less than one to do it again.
A stifling Blue Devil defense led the way, tallying 11 first-half steals and forcing 26 Demon Deacon turnovers as No. 7 Duke (21-4, 13-0 in the ACC) clinched the top seed in the ACC tournament for the second straight year, routing Wake Forest (6-17, 2-11) 86-48 in Cameron last night.
The Blue Devils' 16th straight victory put them three games in front of second-place Virginia and three games away from an undefeated conference mark, something coach Gail Goestenkors isn't overlooking.
"We've talked about it as a team because everybody else has talked about it," Goestenkors said. "We've already accomplished something very special and we're in the midst of something else special right now. But our focus is day-to-day because if we look too far down the road, we're going to stub our toe. The future will take care of itself."
Michele VanGorp scored 13 points and six other Blue Devils contributed eight or more as Goestenkors' offense blitzed the overmatched Deacons. Nicole Erickson's five assists paced the Blue Devils, who committed a season-low two turnovers in the first half.
But more importantly than the numbers for Goestenkors was that after a lackluster victory over Georgia Tech, the game marked a return to the intensity level from earlier in the season.
"The last couple of games we haven't played very well and we knew that and we talked about that," Goestenkors said. "In a season you're going to have peaks and valleys. The great thing was we were able to not play well and still win, and that's the mark of a great team. This was a very good game."
Switching between a 1-3-1 zone and man-to-man defenses, Duke put the Demon Deacons on the ropes early. Four steals by four different Blue Devils fueled a 16-0 run in the opening two minutes that left the question to be answered last night not whether or not Duke would wrap up the ACC title, but just when Wake Forest would score.
"It was an excellent way to start; I couldn't complain," VanGorp said. "I looked up there a couple of times and was like 'They still haven't scored, they still haven't scored,' and I was like 'wow.'"
Despite what Goestenkors called a "lack of execution," the Blue Devils opened up an increasingly wider margin, pushing the lead over 30 points late in the first half. An Olivia Dardy jumper ended the Duke shutout streak at 16 points, but the Demon Deacons managed only 11 more in the first half.
While Goestenkors may have been upset with her team's lack of execution, she couldn't be upset with their marksmanship. Duke connected on 33 of its 62 attempts from the floor, marking the second straight game the Blue Devils have shot over 50 percent.
"They had a slow first half in scoring," VanGorp said. " And it really seemed like we were hitting everything. After a while I stopped going for the offensive rebounds because I knew it was going in."
With the regular-season title now wrapped up, the Blue Devils can concentrate on their next goal, an undefeated conference mark, because, as Hilary Howard knows, they don't hang banners for 13-0.
"It's great to be in first place in the ACC," she said. "But we haven't really done that much yet. We haven't accomplished all of our goals yet, so we have a lot left to do."
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