GREENSBORO - Duke's Lindsey Harding had the ball in her hands with her team facing a one-point deficit and virtually no time left on the clock.
Harding, a 75-percent free throw shooter, stepped to the line with 0.1 seconds remaining, only to clank both her first and second free throws off of the back of the rim. As Carrem Gay's last-second attempt at a game-winning tip-in missed the hoop, the title hopes of the Blue Devils (32-2) vanished and the fourth-seeded Scarlet Knights (25-8) rode away with a 53-52 victory over the NCAA Tournament's overall No. 1 seed Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
"The first time I shot it I was so shocked, Harding said. "It came off perfectly, but I guess some days you just can't him them."
After missing her final free throw, Harding fell to the court and covered her face as her teammates surrounded and consoled their senior leader, playing her final game in a Duke uniform.
"My heart just breaks for her right now." Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I just don't want this to be her lasting memory, because she has meant so much to our program."
The Scarlet Knights got their first and only lead of the second half on a layup by freshman guard Ephipanny Prince with 20 seconds left on the clock. Duke called a timeout and put the ball in Harding's hands, but Rutgers' Essence Carson stripped the ball away with 5.6 seconds left. Carson was immediately fouled, but the Blue Devils were still three team fouls away from being able to force the Scarlet Knight to the line, leaving only the option of forcing a turnover on the inbounds play.
Harding managed to do just that, soaring up to intercept Carson's errant inbound pass at midcourt. She immediately drove to the basket and was fouled, setting up her heartbreak at the free throw line.
The Scarlet Knights, who were down by 5 points at halftime, came out of the locker room with a stifling full court press that led to 12 second half Rutgers points off turnovers. The team's "55" press helped Rutgers to tie the game with just over 8 minutes to go. Still, the steadying presence of Duke center Alison Bales, who scored her team's next six points, allowed the Blue Devils to maintain their lead until Prince's late layup.
"We weren't really prepared for it," Harding said of the Rutgers pressure. "When you have a press offense, you need to set up. I would take the ball up, turn around and [see that] everyone is gone. I was like, 'OK, this team is too fast, too quick, too upright for me to try to dribble through 5 people alone.'
The close result was a stark reversal from the teams' first meeting this season, when the Blue Devils cruised to an 85-45 win Dec. 4 in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knights used that loss as motivation as they prepared for their rematch.
"We were all embarrassed. But what was good about that was that our steps were ordered. This [game] became a retake," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "We feel proud to say that we have defeated, what I consider, the best team that has been assembled in Womens basketball in a long time."
The loss not only marked the end of Duke's streak of five consecutive Elite Eight appearances, but also the stellar careers of senior starters Harding and Bales. Bales tied a season high with her team-high 21 points, and her 4 blocks left her one short of tying the all-time NCAA single-season block record of 152.
Although their tournament run may be over, Goestenkors said that she hopes the disappointment of an early exit does not mar the highlights of the winningest season in school history.
"We've had a tremendous season," Goestenkors said. " I told my players that one game does not define this team or the type of season that they've had. I don't think anybody in the country anticipated that we were going to have such a remarkable year, and I'm proud of each and every one of them."
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