For the second year in a row, a freshman was the team's leading scorer in the No. 5 Duke women's basketball team season opener.
Last year, Alana Beard scored 15 as the Blue Devils beat UCLA in Albuquerque, N.M.
This year, with Beard moved to point guard and too busy dishing out six assists while being blanketed by Texas Tech's Jia Perkins to lead the team in scoring, Monique Currie led Duke with 17 points.
She also grabbed 10 rebounds and five steals.
"I thought she did a great job," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "She needed to do two things: drive to the basket and rebound. And I think we saw both of those today. I think she did a great job attacking the basket on the offensive end, and rebounding, especially on the defensive end."
Soon after coming off the bench for Rometra Craig, Currie assisted on Michele Matyasovsky's three pointer--Duke's sole trey of the afternoon. On the following possession, she converted a difficult Beard entry pass into two points with a contested layup.
And that was just the beginning.
Currie spent the half driving, sinking floaters, fighting for offensive rebounds inside, setting up teammates and cleaning the defensive glass.
Craig, who finished with four points in 13 minutes, playing only half the time that Currie did, started the second half, but was yanked by Goestenkors less than two minutes into play.
"The first thing she did was miss a box out at the other end and they scored a basket because she did not box out," Goestenkors said. "Then
"That was not what we had talked about--not what we wanted to do--so I was very frustrated because I felt like she wasn't ready to play at the beginning of the second half."
Enter Currie.
The freshman grabbed the next rebound, and after a Duke miss, found herself along with Iciss Tillis trapping Tech's Naismith candidate center, Plenette Pierson. The ball popped loose, Currie grabbed it and scored an easy layup--the first points of the second half.
A few possessions later, Currie stood at the three-point line, dribbling. She crouched slightly, ducked her head, and in the blink of an eye, was diving towards the basket, throwing up an acrobatic layup amidst hacking and suddenly out-of-position Tech defenders. The shot was good; the ensuing free throw was not. But the bonus was irrelevant--the damage had been done by the shot.
From the other side of the court, Tillis was gripped in epileptic mania and could have been called for a technical foul for celebratory violence inflicted against her own team's huddle. The crowd reached a fevered pitch seldom heard at women's games. A Duke run had been started.
After the Red Raiders responded with a couple of free throws, Duke, stretching the lead to 62-40, rolled off the next 12 points, including two from a fast break layup by Currie.
"I definitely like to run the floor," she said. "I
In shape though they may be, the Blue Devils slowed down after the run and allowed Texas Tech to cut the lead to 11 with 2:21 remaining.
Currie and her teammates, realizing the game was in jeopardy, rededicated themselves to playing basketball.
In the final 2:31, Currie had three points, two steals, two rebounds and a block.
The most impressive of these plays came with slightly less than a minute remaining when Currie blocked Perkins' shot, grabbed the rebound, raced the length of the court and tried an up-and-under move on Jolee Ayers. The basket was no good, but Ayers was forced to foul and Currie converted both free throws.
Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp was impressed by Currie.
"Certainly she's going to be an immediate contributor to what they're doing," the 20-year veteran said. "[She] had a great day. I thought she really played solid as a freshman and made some big plays for them."
Currie's own coach had similar comments about the freshman who led her team in scoring, yet committed no turnovers and just one personal foul.
"I thought Monique had a tremendous game," Goestenkors. "She handled herself very well. She played like a veteran. She did not play like a freshman."
Though maybe, considering last year's contributions from Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis at times, she played like a Duke freshman.
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