The Duke women's basketball team (19-3, 11-0) looks to continue its undefeated run in the ACC Thursday at Wake Forest (10-11, 4-7). A Blue Devil win clinches at least a tie for first place in the ACC.
The Duke women are looking to keep playing hard, as Wake's biggest strength is its consistency.
"They're a team who never stops playing," ACC player of the year front-runner Alana Beard said. "We just have to focus and play hard."
The Demon Deacons' lineup boasts current ACC player of the week Bianca Brown, but Duke is focusing on Wake's rebounding strength rather than the talent of any individual player.
"They're great rebounders," Duke center Iciss Tillis said. "Basically they just work really hard."
The Blue Devils blew the Deacons out 91-46 in their first meeting of the year.
Wake Forest is struggling to find answers for Duke's talent.
"You look at Duke on paper, and you look at Duke on tape," said Wake coach Charlene Curtis. "They're an excellent ball club. We don't match up with them on paper. We're just going to have to have an unbelievable game from all our players Thursday."
There is some optimism for the Deacons, as the Blue Devils are coming off their third lowest scoring effort of the season against Maryland. Iciss Tillis thinks that the team will get back on track by Thursday.
"We've had some days off so we'll have our legs under us," said Tillis. "I'm sure we'll be a lot more crisp."
Duke received some good news recently when Alana Beard was named Women's Basketball Coaches Association's National Player of the Month for January.
Beard led Duke to a perfect 8-0 record and an average margin of victory of 23.0 points a contest in the month of January. Beard averaged 22.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.6 blocks. She scored 20 or more points in four games and 30 or more points in two games. Beard hit .567 of her field goals, .500 percent of her three-point field goals and .865 percent from the free throw line.
Despite this accomplishment, Wake is not focusing on individual players. Curtis noted that with a team as talented as Duke, ignoring any player would be a bad decision.
"I don't think you can spend time on any one of them," said Curtis. "I think if you concentrate on one or two players, then the other six will kill you. They have eight players that can be great offensive and defensive weapons."
Duke hopes to achieve a repeat of the teams' last meeting by just coming out and playing hard.
"We're going to just come out focused and ready to play," Tillis said. "I'm sure the rest will take care of itself."
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