After Kayla Chones sprinted ahead of the pack and layed in her 12th point to give N.C. State (10-11, 2-6 in the ACC) a 29-19 lead with 5:18 remaining in the first half, It became clear that No. 2 Duke was going to have to work for its 50th consecutive ACC win. The Blue Devils (16-2, 7-0) quickly turned it around, however, and out-scored the Wolfpack by 29 for the remainder of the game en route to a 75-56 win.
Alana Beard symbolized the struggles in the first half, scoring only four points, 15 below her average. Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors felt the struggles in the first half had more to do with effort than poor shooting.
"I was really disappointed with our first half effort," Goestenkors said. "I thought we were a half step slow until the end of the first half. At half time, I told them I felt that N.C. State was playing harder than we were and that they were playing with passion. They were outhustling us, but there is no excuse for that. Sometimes you aren't going to make your shots and that's okay, but there is no excuse for getting outhustled the way we were outhustled in the first half."
The Blue Devils started to cut into N.C. State's surprising lead at the end of the first half, finishing the stanza on a 15-7 run to make the score 36-34 N.C. State with 20 minutes remaining. Beard and the resurgent Iciss Tillis keyed the run, with Beard scoring two points and dishing out three assists and Tillis putting seven more points on the score board during the spurt.
Beard took over quickly in the second half, scoring 17 of her 21 points in that period despite a strained foot and groin problem.
"I think she felt good going into the game, but she took a couple of hard knocks," Goestenkors said. "She did end up being in a lot of pain."
The Blue Devils stunted N.C. State's considerable aggressiveness with an effective half court trap, that both created turnovers and fatigued the shallow Wolfpack.
"They got more aggressive with some traps here and there, just went after the loose balls and beat us to some rebounds when we had inside position," N.C. State head coach Kay Yow said. "We couldn't keep up the pace; we ran out of steam; we weren't nearly as sharp at either end of the floor. The turnovers just really killed us."
The Wolfpack finished with 22 turnovers, 13 of which occurred in the second half. Guards Kendra Bell and Nanna Rivers played 38 and 33 minutes, respectively, which proved too much for them to handle in the uptempo, intense game against one of the nation's best.
Tillis finished with 18 points for the Blue Devils, and sophomore Misti Bass, who saw her playing time increase because of a lingering knee injury to freshman Brittany Murphy, scored 13 points and pulled down five rebounds. Chones led N.C. State with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Sasha Reaves contributed 10 points off the Wolfpack bench.
Tillis caused controversy with her fast break points with 5:54 left in the game. The 6-foot-5 senior grabbed the rim as she layed in Duke's 65th point of the game, but the two points were not obviously a dunk.
Yow did not think the play was a dunk. Tillis did.
"In my mind it was a dunk," Tillis said.
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