After coming within a point of beating the Blue Devils in Charlottesville, the Virginia Cavaliers (10-12, 4-7) hung tough with No. 2 Duke (22-1, 10-0) until the last 11 minutes of tonight's game when a combination of strong Duke defense and struggling Virginia offense resulted in a 75-48 Blue Devil victory Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils took control of the game when, with 11 minutes remaining, the Cavaliers' leading scorer Cherrise Graham was forced to take a seat on the bench after picking up her fourth foul. When Graham went to the pine the Blue Devils held a 42-38 advantage. Duke went on to score the next 10 points, six coming from leading scorer Alana Beard.
Virginia scored just 10 points on two field goals for the remainder of the game.
"I thought that Duke's defense was very instrumental to an extent but most of it was just us," Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan said.
Starting the game with intensity, Duke built a 16-5 lead after six minutes of play.
Duke's aggressive defense forced the Cavaliers' into tough shots that resulted in transition opportunities
Failing to score between the 11 and 7 minute marks, the Blue Devils struggled to execute offensively through the middle of the first half. Duke regained some of its offensive firepower at the end of the half and went into the locker room with a 33-24 advantage.
Lindsay Harding injured her ankle after picking up an offensive foul with just over a minute remaining in the half. She walked gingerly off the court but returned to start the second half.
The physical play picked up as the second half began. Duke committed seven team fouls in the first seven minutes of action.
The Cavaliers came within four points of the Blue Devils when Duke appeared to increase its intensity and had its way with Virginia in the final ten minutes.
The Cavaliers shot just 23 percent in the second half and 29 percent for the game.
Duke has won its last 63 games when holding it opponents to under 40 percent shooting.
Goestenkors felt the Duke defense was tenacious, forcing 21 Cavalier turnovers, 10 coming by way of the steal, and preventing Virginia from executing its offense.
"I thought it was one of our best defensive efforts for forty minutes," Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I thought the kids did a great job, they knew who their scorers were and who their penetrators were."
Harding started her second consecutive game for the Blue Devils and played 31 minutes. The change was motivated by an attempt to put a better defensive team on the floor.
Besides defense, the addition of the quick Harding to the lineup helped the Blue Devils push the ball up the court and created opportunities for themselves in transition.
Despite a physical style of play on the part of the Cavaliers and limited minutes from Mistie Bass - who wore a mask to protect her nose which she broke in practice last week - the Blue Devils dominated the paint scoring 36 points to Virginia's 16. Duke also out-rebounded the Cavaliers by a margin of six.
"I thought the team came out really ready to play," Goestenkors said.
The Blue Devils return to Cameron Thursday to take on Georgia Tech.
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