Although nearly every student on campus found thinking about anything other than final exams this weekend difficult as the remaining hours of study time rapidly faded away, 12 in particular struggled to shake the anxieties of exam week.
Coach Gail Goestenkors said her basketball players had their minds on things other than the Seton Hall Pirates when the No. 20 Blue Devils coasted to a 66-52 victory for their seventh consecutive win Saturday at Continental Airlines Arena.
"It wasn't our best effort of the season," Goestenkors said. "We looked tired. We looked like we were getting ready for finals. We weren't putting out our best offensively or defensively. Right now, I'm happy to come away with the win."
That's not to say that the win didn't come easily for Duke (8-1), because it did. Peppi Browne led Duke in both scoring and rebounding as she tallied 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to record her first double-double of the season. Browne helped the Blue Devils open up a 28-point lead early in the second half, and Seton Hall (3-4) never really threatened them the rest of the way.
Even in victory, however, it wasn't all smiles for the Blue Devils. Only three days removed from a hard-fought victory on the road against Virginia Tech, Duke wasn't able to capture that same intensity against the Pirates.
Although the Blue Devils ended the first half on an 11-3 run that pushed the lead from 10 to 18, Goestenkors used the intermission to challenge her players to show more emotion.
"We talked about the lack of emotion in the first half," the eighth-year coach said. "The bench was even being very quiet. We need our girls on the bench to be cheering and yelling. We came out [in the second half] pressing to pick up the emotion, but it was very short-lived."
Twenty-four seconds into the half, Rochelle Parent converted a Lauren Rice steal into two of her nine points. The bucket gave the Blue Devils a 20-point lead and ignited a seven-minute burst during which Duke outscored Seton Hall 14-4 to put the game out of reach.
During that span, the Blue Devils thieved two of their 13 steals and forced several turnovers, but the true effect of the pressure defense was evident in Seton Hall's shooting. The Pirates, who were led by 11-point efforts from both Susan Murray and Naimah Smiyh, knocked down just two of their nine shots against the press and were able to hit only 35.7 percent of their shots for the game.
Parent chipped in five points and Rice added four of her 10 points in the first seven minutes of the half as Duke's starters tried to atone for their lackluster performance in the first half.
"The first five minutes of the second half were probably our best five minutes of the game," Goestenkors said. "Our starting five was upset with themselves after the first half. We were up by 14 [at halftime], but we were not playing well. The starters really came out and played hard to open the second half."
Duke's starting five weren't the only difference-makers though. On a night when fatigue was taking its effect on both team's players, the Blue Devils capitalized on their depth and inserted 11 players into the game. Krista Gingrich had three steals and hit two three-pointers to score 10 points off the bench, while Michelle Matyasovsky contributed nine points and four rebounds in only 16 minutes of action.
Despite solid statlines for several players, Duke shot only 40 percent for the game-including 2-for-13 on three-pointers-and Blue Devil ballhandlers committed more than twice as many turnovers as they dished out assists. After her team allowed a 28-point lead to get cut in half over the final 13 minutes of play, Goestenkors expressed her displeasure with her team's intensity level.
"I was disappointed with our effort," Goestenkors said. "I understand though that there are going to be games like this. It happens to us every year before finals, but it was disappointing because we can do better. I feel like we can learn from this. As long as we learn from every game, that is what's important right now."
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