Seniors Schweitzer, Parent provide leadership for top-seeded Duke

GREENSBORO - Senior Night was a week ago, but it was seniors Georgia Schweitzer and Rochelle Parent who have carried the tournament for Duke.

In the first two rounds of the ACC tournament, one leads the team on offense, the other on defense, one in points, the other in rebounds. Both are tired, and both have seen their share of injuries.

Like two unmatched bookends, the seniors have brought the Blue Devils knocking on the door of a second consecutive tournament championship, a historic feat for the Duke program. Without their productivity Friday night, the Blue Devils might have made conference history-as the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round to a No. 9 seed.

"Georgia did a great job on the offensive end and Rochelle did a great job on the defensive end," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They're two great leaders and I think they showed that today."

After No. 9-seeded Wake Forest took Duke to a frightening overtime scare Friday, Schweitzer-who tied a career-high 27 points, 25 of which came in the second half on the strength of 14-for-16 shooting from the free-throw line-gathered her teammates at practice the next day and took over the offense.

"I told my teammates that I wanted the ball," Schweitzer said.

Indeed, she got the ball yesterday, inside and outside. A jumper here, a drive there, a three-pointer way over there. While Alana Beard and Sheana Mosch contributed 20 points between the two of them, Schweitzer simply decided to shoot the ball with confidence and no hesitation.

The move took a tremendous amount of pressure off Mosch and Beard. With the first half controlled by a speedy Florida State team that made Duke's transition game look horrid at times, it also left the other two Blue Devils more opportunities to defend.

Schweitzer showed it can be about both. Meanwhile, on the other side of the court, Parent was attacking the glass, taking rebound after rebound, 13 total, 10 of which came defensively. This occurred after the senior grabbed eight boards Friday night before leaving with a strained hamstring.

Florida State coach Sue Semrau has grown accustomed to facing the senior duo. She is one of only three coaches to know what it is like to beat them this season (Clemson's Jim Davis and N.C. State's Kay Yow are the others).

"We couldn't find an answer for Georgia," Semrau said. "We tried to play zone defense on her early because we thought if we could keep an eye on her..., [we could stop her]. But she stepped up, and I thought we played pretty good defense on her."

The Seminoles did play great defense on Schweitzer. They played such good defense, it backfired. In fact, Semrau knew Schweitzer would be hard to stop and double-teamed her early on. But having made two early shots for the Blue Devils, the move emboldened Schweitzer.

The rest is history and the Blue Devils move on to defend their ACC tourney championship. On a team where Schweitzer and Parent might have been overshadowed at times by a very talented and productive freshman class, the seniors have been through this before, while Beard and the others have never seen postseason play.

For the freshmen, every game left in their season will be about learning.

For the seniors, it is all about leadership.

The word leader gets thrown around a lot in college sports, especially with seniors. But over the weekend, Schweitzer took on just as much leadership as her coach. That is what makes her special and that is why, with numbers that do not even lead the conference, let alone the nation, she remains a credible player-of-the-year candidate.

Or forget that, let's just give her coach of the year.