Blue Devils' No. 23, not Lady Vols', led team to Final Four

A day before the women's basketball team stunned Tennessee, forward Georgia Schweitzer was hounded by questions of 'How do you stop Chamique Holdsclaw?'

Schweitzer wouldn't say much, but merely confirmed what everyone already knew-Holdsclaw is a phenomenal player.

She didn't need to say much. Her sensational 33-minute, 22-point effort Monday night against Holdsclaw and the Lady Vols answered the skeptics and the doubters better and more emphatically than anything Schweitzer could have said.

Before the game, there weren't any questions regarding who would be the best player wearing No. 23-Holdsclaw. When the final buzzer sounded, there wasn't any doubt among the stunned observers which No. 23 had played better either, and it wasn't even close.

Schweitzer ignited Duke's first-half charge with 12 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor and drove the nail in Tennessee's coffin late in the game with an offensive rebound and ensuing layup. The four-time All-American Holdsclaw, harassed all night by Schweitzer, Rochelle Parent and others, endured a nightmarish final chapter in her storied collegiate career, shooting 2-of-18 from the floor and scoring a season-low eight points.

"[Holdsclaw] had an off game," Schweitzer said. "I'm not going to give myself credit that she wasn't hitting her shots-she's awesome. On any other given night, she would've made a lot of those shots. I just tried to make the shot a little more difficult by staying between her and the basket and getting a hand in her face and doing any little thing I could do, but she had an off night."

Schweitzer, however, was anything but off. She made Tennessee pay dearly for its aggressive ball-pressure by getting herself open without the ball and knocking down the shots when her teammates found her.

After fumbling a pass from Hilary Howard on Duke's first possession of the game, Schweitzer played a nearly perfect half from that point on. Howard found Schweitzer on an inside cut for her first points of the game that tied the score at six. Three minutes later, Schweitzer drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key that gave Duke a 13-11 lead it never relinquished.

"She was commenting on my game and giving pointers on my shot," Schweitzer said. "She's like the shot-doctor queen. When I got out there in warmups, I just concentrated on the little things."

Although she owns one of the prettiest shots in the collegiate game, Schweitzer has struggled with her shot of late, possibly due to her continuing battle with an injured right shoulder. Schweitzer suffers from a painful right rotator cuff that had made doing even the simple things on the court, like throwing an overhead pass, nearly impossible.

While no MRI has been performed on the shoulder, doctors suspect joint looseness, ligament damage and tearing, among other things. Schweitzer is slated for surgery at the season's conclusion, and maybe that's why she has been instrumental in helping Duke prolong its season.

"She is the toughest kid on our team," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "Our team doctor said no other athlete, male or female, would be playing with her injury, period-that says a lot about her. She has to worry so much right now about keeping her shoulder in line that she really has to think about her shot.

"Whether she admits it or not, we can see that she's changed her shot to protect her shoulder. Last night, she just said, 'This is for all the marbles, you can't afford to let an injury stand in the way.'"

For Schweitzer and the Blue Devils, all the marbles and the gems now lay glittering in their sights. And the East Regional Most Outstanding Player must turn in another similar performance if the Blue Devils hope to walk away from San Jose with all those marbles.

"I feel like everything we've worked for has paid off," Schweitzer said. "I think back to this summer when I worked really hard-it's making that all worthwhile. All the practices and all the injuries I've had, this makes it all go away."