GREENSBORO, N.C. - Lindsey Harding had carried the Blue Devils on her shoulders all season, but Saturday her teammates were left picking up their heartbroken point guard from the floor at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Harding had the ball in her hands with her team facing a one-point deficit and 0.1 seconds left on the clock. A 75-percent free throw shooter on the year, Harding stepped to the line, only to clank both shots off 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 fourth-seeded Rutgers (25-8) escaped with a 53-52 victory over the NCAA Tournament's overall No. 1 seed.
"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 hit 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 Epiphanny Prince with 20 seconds left in the game. 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 sending the Scarlet Knights 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 pass at midcourt. She immediately drove to the basket and was fouled, setting up her heartbreak at the free throw line.
Rutgers, down by five points at halftime, came out of the locker room with a stifling full-court press that led to 12 second half Scarlet Knights points off turnovers.
The team's press helped Rutgers tie the game with just more than eight 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 five 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 rout Dec. 4 in Piscataway, N.J. The Scarlet Knights used that loss to motivate them as they prepared for the 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 women's basketball in a long time."
The defeat 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-leading 21 points, and her four 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 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."
NOTES:
With Duke out of the NCAA Tournament, rumors regarding Goestenkors and other job opportunities are likely to heat up. After the game Saturday, Goestenkors was asked if the loss to Rutgers would change her outlook. "It doesn't change anything," she said. "Like I said, I'm just focused on my team right now.... Rutgers' win was its second in a row over a team playing a game with home-field advantage. Last week, the Scarlet Knights topped fifth-seeded Michigan State in the second round in East Lansing, Mich. in a game played on the Spartans' campus.... Duke finished the season starting the same lineup for every one of its 34 games.... Rutgers faces second-seeded Arizona State tonight in Greensboro with a trip to the Final Four in Cleveland on the line.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.