The defining characteristic of the Duke women's basketball team in its 86-69 win over Virginia was its energy. Although the Cavaliers appeared lethargic, the Blue Devils seemed to be everywhere, and found a way to get nearly every loose ball. In the first half, Duke not only made 16 of its 32 shots, but also corralled offensive rebounds on eight of its misses, amassing a stunning success rate of 75 percent.
In their Dec. 6 meeting against the Wahoos, the Blue Devils thrashed Virginia 107-73 by running the Cavaliers off the court with their transition game. Virginia coach Debbie Ryan prepared for this, and wanted to force Duke to beat her team with its half-court game. The Blue Devils did just that with the same vigor as they did in December with their fast-break attack.
"I felt like we did a nice job in transition," Ryan said. "We've gotten a lot better in that area of the game. We dropped back in the lane too much at times to stop their transition, but that left the outside too open at times."
The Blue Devils passed the ball extremely well, with the ball usually going inside to Iciss Tillis, then being kicked out for an open jump-shot. Tillis led the team with five assists, and Duke shot a higher percentage from behind the three-point line than it did in front. The Blue Devils had 20 assists as a team to Virginia's nine.
"Basically we were running spread, and I just tried to keep moving," Tillis said. "I felt like everybody was moving really well."
Duke's halfcourt game was especially effective because of the inspired play of point guard Vicki Krapohl. The sophomore made four of her six three-point shots to score 12 points, 7.5 more than her season average.
"When we are at our best, we really move the ball around a lot," Krapohl said. "People have to double-team Iciss, and when she kicks the ball out, there are a lot of open looks. We were able to make shots from the outside, which turned it into a shooting match."
Part of the reason Duke looked so quick was that UVa looked asleep on the court. The Virginia players had confused looks on their faces, as opposed to Duke's intensity, and appeared to just be going through the motions.
Ryan, however, felt her team played extremely hard.
"I still felt like we were fighting as hard as we could," said Ryan. "There were just a couple of situations where we didn't get a call in terms of a loose ball, or we didn't get a call in terms of a rebound, or we got fouled. We stayed in the game. We didn't get discouraged. We kept fighting. To me, that's all I needed to see."
Ryan's comments illustrate that perhaps there was a different expectation level coming into the game. It appeared Virginia was playing to avoid a blow-out, while Duke was playing to win.
The Cavaliers displayed poor shot selection, as the Blue Devil defense was stifling throughout the contest. On numerous occasions, the shot clock ticked to its final seconds, forcing Virginia to take bad shots.
Ryan, however, believed that shot selection was not the problem; rather, she thought her team simply wasn't making anything.
"I thought we got a lot of good shots today, and we didn't hit them," the Virginia coach said.
Ryan then backed off her stance slightly, but still praised her team's offensive decisions.
"Some of them maybe were not the absolute best shots, but they weren't bad shots."
Regardless of how she classified her team's attempts, the Cavaliers still did not make nearly enough shots to stay competitive with the Blue Devils.
Ryan complimented the Blue Devils' talent after the game.
"Everybody on Duke's team is good," Ryan said. "Everybody can shoot the three. It's very, very difficult to cover everything."
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