TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The top-ranked Blue Devils walked into the sparsely populated, yet vociferous, Donald L. Tucker Civic Center and must have imagined themselves on a playground.
Kids screamed as they slid down a giant inflated slide off the edge of the court, while others danced around in the moonwalk inside the slide. When the Florida State band began playing their famous Tomahawk Chop, several of the Duke players imitated the hand motion and laughed about it.
As soon as the referee tossed the ball in the air and Florida State (15-5, 4-1 in the ACC) recovered the ball in what looked like a game of hot potato, however, the Blue Devils quickly realized this was not going to be a children's game of tag.
This was about to be a tough, gut-checking boxing match.
The teams battled their way through a combined 40 fouls and 36 turnovers, and at the final buzzer, Duke (21-0, 6-0) stood victorious over the Seminoles, 73-60.
"Sometimes you just have to grind out games," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "For games that you're not as emotional about, you need to generate your intensity and focus, and we had a hard time with that."
With their 21st straight victory to open the season, the Blue Devils are off to the best start in program history.
Certainly the team came out relaxed. Everyone joked around during their warm-up drills, and even on the opening tip, Abby Waner could be seen smiling.
It certainly did not help them for the majority of the first half.
With the opening period rapidly coming to close, the Blue Devils clung to a 28-27 lead.
They soon widened that lead.
Duke kicked off a 23-9 run with freshman Bridgette Mitchell feeding the star of the game, Carrem Gay, inside for an open layup on the left side of the basket. On the very next inbounds play under the Blue Devils' offensive basket, Abby Waner nailed a catch-and-shoot from the left corner.
One Seminole free throw later, Brittany Mitch was fouled hard and nailed one of two free throws. Lindsey Harding closed the half by also making one of two from the foul line.
The spurt spilled over into the second half, and when it was all said and done, the Blue Devils led 51-36.
Down the stretch in the second half, the Seminoles and Blue Devils traded buckets as Duke maintained a comfortable lead and cruised to a 13-point victory.
Free throws supported the Blue Devils throughout the game, as they out-shot Florida State by 14 at the line for the game, making 20 of 26 free throws.
"I don't know if you can win a basketball game when you get to the line 12 times and the other team gets there 26," Florida State head coach Sue Semrau said. "Either we're going to have to learn how to adjust to officials or I'm going to have to learn how to get a technical foul."
Harding also played well despite shooting 1-for-7 from the field in the game. The senior guard was 8-for-10 from the charity stripe to finish with 10 points and also added five assists to bring her career total to 534, passing Hilary Howard as Duke's all-time leader.
"Lindsay Harding is a tremendous point guard and she is a difference maker," Semrau said.
The win gave Duke its 600th victory over the history of the program and the team has now won 29 of its last 30 true road games.
"Duke's a great basketball team," Semrau said. "They just know their roles. They have a real confidence that starts with their point guard position."
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