Duke raises banner; falls to U.S. national team

When Peppi Browne looked up into the Cameron rafters before the start of the game, her head cocked to the left, a smile formed at the corners of her lips and she watched 15 feet of blue and white history unfold from the indoor sky. "It was great," she said. When Peppi Browne looked up at the scoreboard after the final buzzer sounded some two hours later, her hair wildly splayed by a countless number of collisions with the floor, opposing players and her teammates, her body carried a soldiers' collection of nicks. "It was a battle," she said. The outcome had long ago been decided, years ago on college hardcourts and recreation blacktops across the nation, but for all that may be said of the efforts of a motley group of role players and freshmen, who 24 hours earlier were standing in line for autographs of the current opponents, it can't be said that they were intimidated. "I said there's nothing to be nervous about, nothing to worry about," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "The only way that they could embarrass themselves was to not compete, so the only thing I asked was that they compete. It didn't matter what the score was, it only mattered that it was competitive. That's what they did." And they did it by playing their own brand of game. Without the smooth controlled game that came with the Nicole Erickson and Hilary Howard led teams of the last two seasons, the Duke squad that takes the court in Cameron these days plays with all the finesse of a Steelers linebacker. Even when they're playing the best in the world. "They're just human, just players," Brown said. "They're good, but they're just like us." But in college basketball, they're all immortals, retired jerseys hanging somewhere, names in the record books. Already this season, Team Legends has shown what they could do to college teams, demolishing Stanford by 52 and No. 4 UCLA by 57. Yet for the first 12 minutes of the game, an ultra-physical stretch where all-out body checks were more common than hand checks, Duke's version of ugly-ball was stymieing the world's best. "After the game with Russia, they were more physical," Goestenkors said. "Tonight was more realistic of what we're going to do as a team. It's how we play." After giving up a layup on Team USA's first possession, the Blue Devils began grinding the national team on both ends of the floor. A flurry of offensive fouls, traveling violations and misdirected elbows later, the Blue Devils were leading 4-2 over three minutes into the game. And when Missy West, the unlikely bench-star of Duke's first two exhibition games, connected on a long three-pointer eight minutes into the game Duke led by four. But against the national team, it felt like 400. It wouldn't last, of course, with Krista Gingrich and Georgia Schweitzer on the sidelines in street clothes, the intensity couldn't last. Even when the Blue Devils remained tied with eight minutes remaining in the first half, everyone on the floor and everyone on hand knew it was a stay of execution. But for a team desperately seeking to find an identity in a team of question marks, it was a statement that a scrappy team could get the job done. And Goestenkors hopes that, with the regular season starting Nov. 15, her team will remember that after staring down Dawn Staley, CoCo Miller just isn't that intimidating. "I hope it helps build confidence," Goestenkors said. "After tonight, my team should believe it can compete with anybody in the country, and obviously they can."