Preseason accolades and a feature in this week's Sports Illustrated were clearly not enough to satisfy Alana Beard, who gave East Carolina a wake-up call Friday night-and it didn't even take long.
Duke's steadfast guard piled up a pair of layups, four free throws, a three-pointer, an assist and a trio of steals, all in just over two minutes, to lead the top-ranked Blue Devils (1-0) to a 108-46 smoking of East Carolina (0-1). It was the season premiere of what is sure to be the award-winning Alana Beard Show.
"It seems like there's two or three of her out on the court at one time because she's all over the place," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "She does a great job on the ball but she's also very good in help defense, she takes charges, gets the loose balls and she's diving on the floor,"
Beard finished the night with 22 points and a devilish 6-6-6 of six rebounds, assists and steals each--all in 19 minutes.
Duke jumped out early behind three straight shots from Iciss Tillis as part of a 22-3 run and never looked back with Sunday's matchup against No. 2 Tennessee approaching faster than the finger of a busy scoreboard operator at Cameron Indoor Stadium Friday.
Vicki Krapohl drained two three-pointers before Beard's balanced spurt in a first half that saw Duke knock down seven of 11 shots from beyond the arc while shooting almost 66 percent from the field en route to 63 points in the first half, two shy of a school record.
Though the Blue Devils dropped into a zone after they made shots--and they made plenty of them--in the second half as the Pirates started to find solace in the three-point shot, Duke played suffocating defense throughout, thanks to Beard.
The junior guard added five points in the second half to give the Blue Devils a 48-point lead before giving way to the team's heralded freshmen, who shone in their first career action and a taste test for Sunday's game. Jessica Foley hit a freshman record four three-pointers, and the daunting duo of Mistie Bass and Brooke Smith held their own in the post with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Goestenkors, meanwhile, was all business on a big weekend as she failed to even crack a smile when Duke's Final Four appearance banner for last season was unveiled before the game.
"We haven't been focusing on [the Tennessee game] to be perfectly honest with you," she said. "We have been talking about ECU and we've been talking about getting better with every game. We don't have 24 hours, really, to prepare. So it's not been an issue for us as well. We prefer people did not talk about it because we have other things to worry about."
Friday, at least, the Blue Devils cruised to a 62-point victory that left them with little to fret about.
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