In the second half of the women's basketball team's torching of Team Concept last night, Sheana Mosch forced a jump shot in traffic as Duke started to lose a bit of focus with a fifty-point lead. The senior forward clenched her fists, letting out a growl, a huff and a puff, but not before wiping her grimace off to go give her teammate at the foul line a high five.
Mosch, back in the starting lineup for good after sophomore Monique Currie tore her ACL last week, often looked past those missed shots for intangibles and senior leadership. She filled in admirably Wednesday with eight rebounds, eight assists and a pair of steals along with plenty of loud-mouthing while on the floor with four underclassmen.
"Sheana's a little different than Monique," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "She's not as much a power player. But we had talked about her rebounding for us a little bit more to help alleviate the loss of Monique. And I thought she did a really good job on the boards, I thought she did a good job passing the basketball and getting out on the breaks. I thought she did some really nice things for us."
Most of those nice things came early on, when the starting lineup was still intact. Saving balls from going out of bounds and reading Team Concept's passing lanes for break-ups, she stood out enough to forget, for the moment, about Currie, who was active herself hopping and butt-slapping from the bench. Even when Mosch faltered and lost Concept's LaTonya Washington on defense midway through the first half, she made up for it by tipping the ball away for a turnover. Indeed, it's on defense where Mosch is most noticeable, albeit by force. Belting out "Ball! Ball!" while hounding her offensive counterpart, she leads the No. 1 Blue Devils now that her voice is heard some more without Currie around.
Still, though, Mosch alone will have trouble making up for Currie's scoring. Without those 14.3 points per game from Currie, Mosch will have to find herself looking a lot more like the player who put together 106 points over a four-game span when leading scorer Alana Beard was injured last year.
Mosch gave a preview of that player in the first five minutes last night, draining two long jumpers with a confident stroke. But she, like most of her teammates, lost her touch in the second half, missing six shots and turning the ball over twice to end with only the four points from early on.
"I think she's very comfortable in a scoring role," Goestenkors said, "so I think she'll do that. And I think some other people will step up as well. I don't think it'll be squarely on Sheana's shoulders."
With Beard and Iciss Tillis already baring quite a load, that third scorer is running short on time to show face. Goestenkors pointed to Michele Maytasovsky or one of the freshmen as sources to chip in, but Maytasovsky didn't appear ready to step into that new role with a quiet night against Team Concept, and the first-years seemed less than polished.
Jessica Foley received significant playing time but couldn't find her outside shot, Brooke Smith fell in love with a lazy hook shot and Mistie Bass was intimidating with 12 points down low but overly deliberate with her raw post moves.
For her part, Beard isn't worrying and doesn't expect to have to carry virtually the entire scoring burden.
"We had a big loss in Monique," she said. "She's a huge part of our offense, of our team. But I think we have other players that can step in and fulfill that position. So it's no pressure at all. I've just got to have confidence in my teammates."
The talent is certainly there for anyone to be confident in Duke-they're not No. 1 for nothing. But with Tennessee looming early on the schedule, Mosch and Co. have too much to prove and too little time in which to do it to leave Monique Currie's shoes unfilled.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.