Many Duke students live by the adage "work hard, play hard," and the women's basketball team certainly abided by this maxim during its 13-day tour of Australia this summer.
From Aug. 10-22, the Blue Devils traveled 34 hours from Durham to Sydney, visited many famous landmarks throughout the continent, competed in four grueling games against some of the best teams in Australia and flew another 34 hours back to the East Coast with little time to recover before the start of classes.
While Duke struggled in its early games without recent graduate and 2001 Kodak All-America Georgia Schweitzer and defensive specialist Rochelle Parent, the team pulled out an impressive 75-69 victory over the Sydney Panthers in the final game of the tour to even its record at 2-2.
The Panthers, who are the reigning champions of the Australian Women's National Basketball League (the same league which produced the 2001 WNBA's No. 1 draft pick Lauren Jackson), entered the fourth quarter with a 55-45 lead. In previous seasons the Blue Devils would have relied heavily on Schweitzer and Parent to mount a comeback, but coach Gail Goestenkors was pleased that her current squad was able to overcome the point deficit under its new leadership.
"We used to rely on Rochelle to make up for others' defensive mistakes and looked to Georgia in close games," Goestenkors said. "In the last game we were able to look to each other rather than waiting for one of them to step up."
Duke's comeback can be largely attributed to the play of last year's national freshman of the year and All-America candidate Alana Beard, who scored 13 fourth-quarter points en route to a tour-high 31 points, eight rebounds, four steals and four assists.
"It took a while for us to find each other in the first few games," Beard said. "It's always hard to adjust when you lose two great players, but
The Blue Devils' victory was particularly impressive considering its tight 76-72 battle the day before against the Brisbane Capitals in their third game of the tour.
Once again, Beard led her team with 26 points, four assists and five steals, while fellow sophomore Iciss Tillis pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.
The game against Brisbane also marked the return of senior co-captain Krista Gingrich to the lineup. After promising freshman and sophomore campaigns in which she averaged 15 minutes and 24.1 minutes per game, respectively, Gingrich tore both of her calves last year and was limited to sparse playing time in just 19 games.
The Blue Devils will rely on the presence of veterans Gingrich and junior co-captain Sheana Mosch; they will lead a young team of two freshmen, five sophomores, two juniors and only one senior.
"It's an honor for me and Sheana to be captains this year," Gingrich said. "We're a young team and I think that our maturity can help a lot."
Despite Duke's success in the latter half of the trip, it opened the competition with two consecutive losses against the Australia Institute of Sport, 72-57 and 75-71.
The Blue Devils did receive some strong individual performances from Beard, who scored 20 points on 10-of-15 shooting in the first game, and Mosch, who poured in a team-high 22 points in the second contest.
However, the team's frequent foul trouble, low three-point shooting percentage and high number of turnovers hurt them against AIS and throughout the tour.
"The turnovers are my main concern," Goestenkors said. "We need to take better care of the ball if we want to win. However, I'm not as worried about the fouls and three-point trouble. The officiating is much different over there, the three-point line is further back, the shot clock is shorter, and we were playing with a men's ball."
On a positive note, Duke's successful transition game led by Beard and Mosch and talented post players such as Tillis, junior Michele Matyasovsky and sophomore Crystal White, showed why it will once again be one of the top teams in the nation this year.
"We played very strong teams and did a great job of executing our transition game against them," Beard said. "We were also posting up and rebounding well. All of these things will be important keys for us."
While the Blue Devils were honing their skills for the upcoming season amidst their hectic game and travel schedule, they also made the most of their leisure time Down Under. The team hit many of Australia's most famous tourist sites, including a skyrail deep into the rainforest, Surfers' Paradise, SeaWorld and even some bungee jumping for the most daring players.
The consensus favorite events, though, were having front-row seats to a play at the Sydney Opera House, seeing koala bears and kangaroos at the Wild World Zoo in Cains and snorkeling on the world famous Great Barrier Reef.
Beard, who usually does not like to swim, singled out the snorkeling as the most memorable part of her trip.
"I was a little nervous at first," she said. "But I got used to it after a little bit and it was awesome. I also loved the boat ride back to shore because we saw humpback whales; it was like a Free Willy moment."
Goestenkors realizes that her players gained valuable experience against Australia's top teams, but she also recognizes that their time spent together off the court was just as important.
"Probably the best thing about the trip was just being together and laughing," she said. "We learned a lot on the court, but we spent most of the 13 days getting closer as a team and that should help us this season."
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