Duke's leading scorer for the season, guard Alana Beard, lived up to her reputation during the first half of the game against N.C. State, but her title was stolen by forward Iciss Tillis in the second half. The two sophomores split the show in Duke's victory.
The first half of the game was all about Beard, who held 21 of the team's total 38 points. After the Wolfpack scored the first basket of the game, she put the Blue Devils on the board with a three-pointer, and then proceeded to score their next two baskets.
Beard made all six of her free throw attempts in the first half and shot 7-of-12 from the field. She outscored Duke's second highest scorer of the half, freshman Monique Currie, by 16 points.
"We knew that Beard was the go-to player, so we had the mindset that we needed to work on not allowing her to score," said N.C. State's Kaayla Chones.
The Wolfpack's Amy Simpson emerged from halftime successful in guarding the red-hot Beard. She had yet to score in the second half until she sank her two free throw shots with 8.2 seconds left in the game.
"Simpson was face-guarding me in the second half, so it was up to my teammates to step up," Beard said. "I wasn't flustered at all, I just had to focus on the little things."
N.C. State's players may have focused a little too much on Beard, though, because they overlooked Tillis. As the tallest player on the team at a height of 6-foot-4, her presence was already felt the moment she stepped on the court.
Tillis filled Beard's shoes in dominating the second half. Prior to halftime, she had scored two points within the first 10 minutes of the game and did not make another basket for the remaining 10 minutes. She came out of the locker room strong, scoring 16 points in the second half.
"The difference between a good team and a great team is that a great team has several people to step up," said Coach Gail Goestenkors. "I give credit to the rest of the team for stepping up."
Just as Beard scored the first points of the first half for the Blue Devils, Tillis posted the first points of the second. In the second minute, she stole the ball and dribbled down the court for a layup to put Duke up 40-32.
"When one person can't score, you have others who pick up the slack," Tillis said. "My team kept encouraging me, and now that I'm a sophomore, I should be able to step up."
Not only did Tillis step up in scoring, but she also led the team in steals. She had a total of five for the game, three of which came in the second half. Though she was 0-2 in free throw attempts, she had three big second-half rebounds, two defensive and one offensive.
Beard finished off the game with 23 points while Tillis had 18. The next highest scorers for Duke were Sheana Mosch with 12 and Currie with 11.
Duke will be able to look to these two to step up in important games the rest of the season. Should both play at such a level together for the whole game, their opponents will be easily left in the dust.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.