After blowing away opponents by at least 21 points for the past month, the No. 2 women's basketball team suffered a major hiccup Friday night in the ACC Tournament's first round. Despite facing a Wake Forest team that posted just a 3-13 conference record during the regular season, the Blue Devils held just a three-point lead with 14 seconds left, and had to cross their collective fingers that a desperation three-point shot would fall short.
Tonia Brown's double-clutch attempt failed to draw iron, enabling Duke (29-1, 17-0 in the ACC) to pull out a 64-59 victory Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
"I feel very fortunate to come away with a win," Duke heads coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They played their hearts out, they played a great game. They just kept coming at us every time I thought we were ready to pull away."
With just a 13-14 overall record entering Friday's contest, Wake Forest knew that barring a miraculous victory over a Duke team that hadn't lost an ACC contest in more than two years, it wasn't going to get an opportunity to play another game this season. Accordingly, the Demon Deacons brought relentless enthusiasm to the floor.
Despite falling behind 7-0 and then 15-5 just minutes into the game, Wake Forest fought back.
"I think we started the game very, very well," Goestenkors said. "We just had a letdown, and the longer Wake Forest played with us, the more confidence they gained."
Senior Tiffani Listenbee delivered an impressive performance for the Demon Deacons, scoring 14 of her team-high 17 points in the second half. Duke's Alana Beard led all scorers with 18.
Although falling behind by double-digits at several times, Wake Forest refused to quit, and mounted one improbable run after another. Despite forcing a tie twice, however, it could never seize the lead, even with an uproariously excited bench.
By comparison, the Blue Devils bench resembled an 8 a.m. classroom.
"One thing I really don't like is when people start being unemotional," tri-captain Sheana Mosch said. "I think that's definitely something we need to remedy. If people are moping around and being all quiet, it affects everyone else."
Despite featuring a veteran core of leaders all accustomed to the pressure of a win-or-go-home tournament, Duke appeared rattled by Wake Forest's tenacity. Asked whether the Blue Devils displayed much calm under fire, Mosch gave her side a poor grade.
"I'd give us about a three on a scale of one-to-10, 10 being very composed," Mosch said. "I thought our intensity was pretty good on defense, but it transferred over a little too much on offense. We were trying to push the ball too much and score off the first or second pass."
Duke looked particularly out of sorts in the closing minutes, where after taking a 59-48 lead with four minutes remaining, the nation's second-ranked team proceeded to commit a serious of turnovers and miss a bevy of free throws. Most glaring were Alana Beard's two misses with under a minute remaining after an overeager Wake Forest defender made a swipe at Mosch making an in bounds pass, resulting in a technical foul.
A few seconds before, freshman Lindsey Harding made a glaringly bad pass resulting in a Wake Forest layup.
"I made a couple of turnovers that I hadn't made since the beginning of the year," Harding said. "It could have been because I was a little bit nervous with it being the tournament, which is really big deal.... These are mistakes that can be fixable, though, so I don't worry about it at all."
All in all, the feeling in the Duke locker room was one of immense relief after Friday's unexpectedly tight contest. Many players laughed and used a dry-erase board for pictionary, shaking their heads at how close they were to taking an early exit.
"I told the team after the game our goal is not to be the best tonight," Goestenkors said. "Our goal is to be the best Monday night. So we have to learn from tonight. We have to take care of business."
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