Moving into the second round of the NCAA tournament is one thing, but getting on head coach Gail Goestenkors' good side is entirely another.
The No. 2 seeded Blue Devils (27-5) set a team-record for margin of victory in the NCAA tournament Saturday night, knocking off the 15th-seeded Campbell Camels (22-9), 71-42 and easily advancing into the second round of the East Regionals. But in a game as short in solid play from either side as it was in excitement, even the record-winning margin wasn't enough to put a post-game smile on Goestenkors' face.
"I thought we were going to be rusty," said Goestenkors, whose team hadn't played a game since winning the ACC championship 12 days before. "And we definitely were, especially on offense"
Although the Blue Devils salvaged a respectable 45 percent shooting effort from the floor, it didn't come from a precision offensive attack. In its first live-run in nearly two weeks, Duke stumbled on offense, often forcing up shots early in the shot clock and, as freshmen Sheana Mosch and Michele Matyasovsky showed in the second half, flubbing even the most wide open layups.
"I thought we were a little rushed tonight," said Duke's recent super-sub Missy West, who led the Blue Devils in scoring with 15. "We fired up some shots maybe we shouldn't have taken."
But the most disturbing line in the Duke romp was the turnover column.
The Blue Devils coughed the ball up 20 times against a vastly overmatched Campbell squad, nine more than they had surrendered to a tight North Carolina defense in the ACC title game.
But while the offense was struggling, the Blue Devil defense kept the team cruising and the large contingency of over 1,000 "Camel Crazies" that had arrived on the seven charted buses, out of the game.
Duke exploited its large height advantage over the Trans America Conference champions, forcing 14 turnovers and holding the Camels to 3-of-22 shooting during a 17 minute 34-9 run that turned a 2-2 game into a 36-11 romp just before halftime.
Campbell only added three more points before halftime, giving the Blue Devils a 36-14 advantage and becoming the third team to score 14 or fewer points in a half against Duke.
The 26 total turnovers by Campbell marked the most forced by a Duke team since an 81-45 blowout of Sacramento State Dec. 20 and the fourth highest total all season.
"They always had a hand in the passing lanes," Campbell senior Lisa Rugg said. "They were there before we could get there. We were outhustled a lot of times."
Yet the Blue Devils couldn't shake their offensive woes in the second half, either. Even ACC player of the year Georgia Schweitzer fell victim to Duke's cold shooting, hitting just 4-of-10 shots from the floor for eight points before Goestenkors reinserted her into the lineup late in the game.
"She was frustrated and not playing her game," said Goestenkors, who pumped her fist in approval when Schweitzer connected on a three with 38.7 seconds left. "I want her to gain her confidence back before [the second round]. I think she did that."
But with a team that relies so heavily on youth as the Blue Devils do, sometimes just moving on is the biggest victory of all.
"I think our freshmen had a lot of nerves to get out," Goestenkors said. "Hopefully they got that out of their system."
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