After turning the ball over on seven of its first nine possessions, Duke suffered from an eight-point deficit to the less highly touted Clemson Lady Tigers. Just as the Blue Devils fought back from a 7-0 deficit in their Jan. 10 game at Clemson, Duke came back to take the lead by halftime, and even pushed its advantage to 17 with 10:27 left in the game.
But unlike the game at Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson came back to compete for the win, as the Lady Tigers scored 11 points in less than two minutes to cut the lead to four with 1:30 to play. Despite winning the turnover battle 26-17, Clemson turned the ball over on its last three possessions to lose the game 77-69.
"I'm very proud of our basketball team and the effort they gave," said Clemson coach Jim Davis. "I thought they fought their hearts out against a team very deserving of their ranking."
Duke coach Gail Goestenkors felt Clemson played with great effort, but did not think its dominating start had anything to do with her team not being ready.
"I'm very, very happy to come away with a win," Goestenkors said. "They came here very well prepared and very focused. We were ready to play. We were just rushing things. I knew we would settle down. I was just surprised how long it took for us to settle down."
The Duke players shadowed their coach's thoughts, as they felt they came out with too much energy.
"We were
Duke played its way throughout its tough start, and began looking like a team that deserved to be ranked No. 5 in the country. The leader of this resurgence was Iciss Tillis.
Tillis scored the Blue Devils' first points of the game with a three-pointer with 15:28 remaining in the first half. She finished the half with 13 points, and also led her team in rebounding and blocks.
"She's one in a million," said Clemson's Krystal Scott. "I can't think of any other player who is as versatile as Iciss Tillis."
Tillis did not come into the game with the intent of dominating; her pre-game focus was actually on her post defense. Although she was the star of the game, Tillis enjoyed how her team came together as one during its rough start.
"We looked to each other for comfort," Tillis said. "We recognized the fact that we were hyper. I liked how we looked to each other to calm down. Normally in situations like this, we just drop our heads. Today we didn't. That's important for our future."
The Duke team actually seemed excited that they did not blow out Clemson like they did in January. The team felt it needed to have a close game to get ready for the postseason.
Despite winning the points-in-the-paint and rebounding battles, Clemson greatly challenged Duke with its interior strength.
"We haven't had a physical game like this in a long time, and we needed that," Goestenkors said.
One of the most interesting aspects of the game was that Clemson dominated the important category of turnovers, yet still lost comfortably.
Duke also won the category of points off turnovers, and Clemson did not utilize their strengths throughout the game during the contest's final moments.
"Some things were going pretty good for us, but we didn't execute down the stretch," Davis said.
One of the Tigers' primary execution problems was free throws. Clemson was second in the ACC in free-throw shooting coming into the game, yet only went 9-for-18 in the game, and missed five important free throws in the last 5:30 of the game.
"We are normally a good free-throw shooting team," Davis said. "That's a big part of our offense. We didn't shoot them as good as we normally do. I guess that's the nature of the game."
Davis was also disappointed with his team's ballhandling in the final moments.
"We also lead the league in turnover margin," Davis said. "Although we won the turnover battle today, we certainly didn't on the last four possessions. I think we need to have more clutch players."
After its difficult start, Duke won the game by relying on its immense talent.
"Its very simple," Davis said. "They're darn good. I don't know if anybody in this league is good enough to beat them."
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