Beard-less Blue Devils top Cavs in Charlottesville

Charlottesville, Va. - When she arrived at Duke a year ago, her coach called her the best ball-handler in the history of the program. Better than 1999 graduate Nicole Erickson, better than every Blue Devil ever.

But after a sound freshman season in which she scored nine points per game, Sheana Mosch receded into the shadows of a new class of freshmen this season. She started every game and she did the little things, crashed the boards, hit her select short-range jumpers, helped run the offense, but for the most part, she left the scoring load to her teammates.

And her points production dropped, rounding out at seven-and-change entering last night's 71-68 victory over defending ACC regular-season champion Virginia. In her stead, there were freshman sensations Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis and reigning ACC player of the year Georgia Schweitzer to account for nearly half of the Blue Devils' offense. In 18 starts, she eclipsed double-digits just six times, never scoring more than the 14 she chipped in when the Clearfield, Penn., native had a homecoming of sorts against Penn State.

Then there was last night. At Virginia's University Hall, Beard sat in street clothes with a cast half the size of her arm protecting her recently dislocated thumb. Tillis, meanwhile, struggled through one of the worst shooting games of her career and when the defense clamped down on Schweitzer in the second half, it became clear the senior captain could not do it all.

Enter Mosch, who shaked-and-baked her way to 25 points on 12 field goals that rarely came from beyond a few feet.

"I think everybody knew they had to step up; Alana does so much for this team, not just one person could fill that slot," Mosch said after the game. "I knew I could drive on them a lot it's not that hard to make layups."

From running the fast break to hitting just about every shot she attempted, Mosch turned in her most dominant performance of the season. Despite hitting career-highs in points, minutes and field goals made, Mosch's heroic game-clinching play came off one of her five misses on the night, and it was a free shot at that.

Standing at the free-throw line with 6.6 seconds left and the Blue Devils up three, 71-68, Mosch tossed up an errant free throw on the front end of a one-and-one. Between her and the ball stood a pair of Cavalier defenders, but neither boxed out Mosch and the gritty sophomore dodged them both to snag the loose ball and outlet it to teammate Rochelle Parent. By the time Parent was fouled with less than three seconds remaining, Virginia's hopes of a comeback were dead.

Sensing the finality of the situation, Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors called a 30-second timeout with 31 seconds remaining in the game and 13 showing on the shot clock. As the clock began to wind down, it was Mosch who took the ball and went baseline on Prillaman.

There were not many other times she let the ball loose from mid-range or deeper, but this time Mosch elevated over Prillaman and launched a 16-footer as the shot clock expired. Into the bottom of the net went the ball and off the bench leaped the Duke players, now up by five thanks to the game's hero.

That basket, Mosch's last of the game, capped a second half run in which she scored 16 points on 8-for-9 shooting.

"In the first half, it was Schweitzer that was killing us and Mosch wasn't really much of a concern," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "Then in the second half, Mosch got in transition and started hitting layups and short-range jumpers. I'd venture to guess that most of her stuff was layups."

Layups or not, a field goal is a field goal and a point is a point. And last night, Mosch had more than anyone. Besides, as she said, it's not very hard to make layups.