Second-half spurt leads Blue Devils past Seminoles

Sports teams from Florida traditionally struggle when traveling north to compete in lower temperatures. Playing in the heated indoors, basketball is normally the exception to this rule, but Sunday Florida State could not deal with the Iciss in Cameron.

6-foot-4 junior Iciss Tillis scored a career-high 30 points as No. 1 Duke (19-0, 7-0) defeated the Seminoles (13-5, 5-2) 81-63. The game was much closer than the final score suggests, as Florida State knotted the game at 52 with 10:13 left in the second half with All-American Alana Beard on the bench with four fouls.

After struggling most game, head coach Gail Goestenkors pulled Beard from the contest for good after her fourth foul with 12:16 remaining in the second half with Duke holding a 50-43 lead. The sophomore guard finished with just seven points on 3-for-9 shooting, well below the 24.9 percent she had coming into the game. Fortunately for the Blue Devils, her return was un-needed, as Tillis and the role players went on a 29-10 run after the Seminoles brief spurt against the Beard-less Blue Devils.

"I think it was good for us to know that if Alana is in foul trouble or she isn't having one of her best games, we are going to be fine," Goestenkors said. "We can all step up"

Florida State guard Tasheika Morris had different feelings about the situation.

"I know we should have taken advantage of [Beard's foul trouble] and didn't," she said.

Tillis immediately took the lead back from the Seminoles on two free-throws that made the score 54-52 Duke with 9:52 remaining in the game. Tillis' points were expected with Beard on the bench, but with Duke running a more equal-opportunity offense in the second half, the Blue Devils' scoring came from all over.

Duke scored on its next possession on a deep two-pointer from Jessica Foley, a player Florida State had hardly expected to be on the floor at this point, let alone ignite a run.

Matyasovsky started her run by knocking down a jump shot after rebounding a Jessica Foley miss. On the very next possession, Matyasovsky scored again from a pass from Foley.

Matyasovsky's run was interrupted by an alley-oop lay-up by Iciss Tillis, who was wearing number 15 after replacing her blood-stained 33. Cameron erupted on this play, adding more fuel to the fire that inspired the Duke run.

On the next play, the Blue Devils topped themselves when Matyasovsky finished a give-and-go with Foley with an athletic reverse lay-up, giving Duke a 74-59 lead with 2:23 remaining.

"I was sick of the way I was playing.... I had turnovers and wasn't really clicking with anyone," Matyasovsky said. "I sort of relaxed toward the end and started playing more confident."

Florida State attempted to regroup after this run by calling a timeout, but Krapohl stole the Seminole's inbound pass and finished with a layup. Duke closed out its scoring with a three-pointer from Tillis and a jump shot from Sheana Mosch.

Before the role players inspired the game-breaking run, it was Tillis who carried the team. Tillis scored 13 points in the first half as the Blue Devils struggled to a 37-32 lead. Later in the game when Beard struggled in the second half, Tillis was dominant, scoring six points in less than a minute.

"I had the hot hand to score," Tillis said. "I kind of knew that I could take over scoring-wise, and that I could go over their post players, so I tried to take advantage of that, tried to post up some."

The Seminoles' star player, Tennessee-transfer Morris, led Florida State in scoring with 16 points, but shot only 6-for-21 from the field. The rest of the Seminole attack was balanced; Linnea Liljestrand was the only other player in double figures with 10 points.

Florida State is the only team that has played both No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Connecticut this season, but offered little insight into the matchup between the un-beatens Feb. 1.

"I haven't even thought about [the UConn-Duke game]," Morris said. "I'm worried about Florida State."