"Wow."
That was backup point guard Vicki Krapohl's initial reaction to hearing she and the other Blue Devils hawked William & Mary point guard Jen Sobota to the tune of forcing 12 turnovers out of her alone. It was a relentless display of defensive fire that began with a Sheana Mosch steal on the Tribe's first possession of the game.
Forty minutes later, the intensity was still there and William & Mary's turnovers-32 for the game-were still rolling in.
"We had too many turnovers, but Duke's defense causes that and I have to give them credit for that," William & Mary coach Debbie Taylor said. "That's the mark of a great team.... Their intensity exists for all 40 minutes."
Krapohl was credited with three of Duke's 23 steals, although she prompted several more William & Mary turnovers by constantly reaching her hands in to pick loose balls away from Sobota and the Tribe's other guards. Playing in only her third career game, Krapohl deferred much of the credit for Sobota's mistakes to fellow freshman Alana Beard. An athletic pure scorer, Beard's primary responsibility on the defensive end of the court is to utilize the long arms on her 5-foot-11 frame to give the opposing team's point guard fits.
At one point late in the first half, with guard Georgia Schweitzer on the bench with a probable separated shoulder, Beard and Krapohl combined for steals on four consecutive William & Mary possessions, three of which were turnovers by Tribe forward Helen Mortlock.
"We were just looking to get after them," Krapohl said. "We have a great point guard hassler in Alana Beard. We wanted to really get after them, force them into a lot of mistakes."
Duke had no problems forcing William & Mary into mistakes, but it did struggle in converting some of those opportunities into points on its end of the court.
Despite trapping and hounding the Tribe into 32 turnovers, the Blue Devils only turned those around into 27 points of offense. At the first media timeout, Duke had already created four William & Mary turnovers, or one for each minute of play. Still, the Blue Devils held a slim 8-6 advantage because of their own five free handouts.
All told, Duke gave the ball away 23 times of its own in one of its more sloppy games on the offensive end in recent memory. It was not enough to stop the team from steamrolling William & Mary, but it was still cause for concern on coach Gail Goestenkors' part.
"I'm glad we were able to play everybody and work on a few different things, especially defensively," Goestenkors said. "But we certainly have some areas to improve upon."
Depending on who you ask, one of those areas might even be pressuring the ball. Although William & Mary struggled much of the game to advance the ball past halfcourt, Duke senior Missy West was not satisfied with the team's defensive intensity early in the game.
The Blue Devils stifled the Tribe's offense, yielding a scant 14 points in the first 17-plus minutes of play. Still, there is always room for improvement.
"I think the first half our defense was actually kind of weak," said West, who led the way with six steals in a game she played only 21 minutes. "We need to be able to talk and communicate on defense."
The Tribe responded with 10 points in the final 2:35 of the first half, but the game was well out of reach by then. In the end, the numbers did not lie. Sobota's 12 turnovers outweighed her combined points and assists, an abysmal statline for which tremendous credit goes to the rotation of Blue Devils who followed her throughout the game. On a night when Duke's offense was a little rusty and out of sync, those turnovers and uneasiness in the half-court set were truly the story of the game.
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