Georgia Schweitzer's senior night was almost over. It had not been pretty. In fact, underclassmen were dominating most of the evening, as both Duke sophomore Michele Matyasovsky and Tar Heel freshman Candace Scott had already set career highs.
And when Duke found itself down four with just over two minutes to play, Schweitzer deferred to sophomore Sheana Mosch, whose eight quick points gave the Blue Devils their first real momentum of the game, coach Gail Goestenkors said.
But with seven seconds left, Mosch's baseball pass left the senior all by herself on a fast break. And after the ensuing intentional foul, the senior was able to seal the game by shooting a pair of free throws. It had taken a while, but the more than 30 family and friends who made the trip from her native Ohio saw possibly her greatest moment at Cameron.
"You kind of think about that the whole game," she said, referring to the emotions of senior night. "I was definitely glad to be the one shooting the free throws."
The crowd of over 8,000 had been loud the entire evening and erupted during Mosch's late outburst. But when Schweitzer caught the pass and began driving alone toward the basket, there was a different kind of noise. It was loud, too, but there was also a murmuring as if everyone in the building recognized both how fitting and unbelievable it was that the senior was on her own in the last seconds.
Even the steady Schweitzer had to enjoy the setting. "You can't ask to go out any better way than against a big rival, on senior night, in front of my friends with such a great crowd," she said.
North Carolina star LaQuanda Barksdale said the team was caught completely off guard by Mosch's pass, but the Tar Heels are not alone when it comes to being shocked by Schweitzer. N.C. State was the victim of a last-second backdoor alley-oop by the senior that gave Duke a 62-59 victory in Cameron last month. In fact, Goestenkors noted that her team had success with the same play against the Tar Heels just a season ago.
"I thought in the timeout, 'I wonder if they remember we ran this against them last year in the tournament,'" she said. "But, they didn't."
The rest of the game was a case of Schweitzer persevering despite being unable to find her touch. She shot a nightmarish 0-for-7 from three-point range and had just two points in the second half before her breakaway in the final seconds. With Duke down by as much as six in the second half to a team in danger of missing the NCAA tournament, one might have expected Schweitzer to try to take over the offense. But the senior has never been one to force her shot when she struggles, and she turned instinctively to getting her teammates involved.
"My whole thing is, if I'm not hitting, I want to get the ball to whoever's hot," the senior said after putting up just four shots in the second half. "Sheana's such an incredible player, I want her taking shots like [those threes]."
Such decisions are part of why Goestenkors raves about her senior's leadership, calling Schweitzer's presence on the court invaluable to making the young Blue Devils play cohesively.
"She makes my life a lot easier," the coach said. "Georgia's always there to make her teammates feel calm and comfortable, and she gives them a higher level of confidence."
And while the Tar Heels' leader Barksdale was forcing up shots on her way to a 5-for-19 shooting performance with just one assist and two turnovers, Schweitzer showed up all over the box score. Despite her struggles from three-point range, she missed just once from inside the arc, ending up with 12 points and adding five assists, six rebounds and four steals.
The Tar Heels went on some incredible shooting runs, but the ability of Duke's point guard to keep her teammates calm proved critical, as Duke maintained its flow on offense during the second half.
As Tar Heel coach Sylvia Hatchell said, last night's game came down to a few plays down the stretch, and as Schweitzer's post-game smile revealed, her trademark patience was definitely worth it.
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