GREENSBORO, N.C. - Duke did not lose Saturday because it failed to execute down the stretch, or because it was complacent on offense.
The seemingly invincible Blue Devils were not vulnerable because Abby Waner missed a fadeaway three with a hand in her face, or because Alison Bales' short jumper to take the lead in the last minute rimmed out. And the fact that Lindsey Harding could not penetrate off the dribble had little to do with Duke's shortcoming.
Sometimes, it is not about swishing shots and playing suffocating defense. Sometimes, fate is more important than field goals and free throws.
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Even if the defeat was hard to swallow for the previously-undefeated Blue Devils, Duke did not lose. North Carolina State won.
N.C. State was playing for its coach, Kay Yow, who is currently immersed in a bitter fight with breast cancer. She struggled to yell Saturday because of recent chemotherapy treatments that affected her vocal capabilities. Even Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors said last week she was pulling for Yow and N.C. State to win the tournament if Duke did not.
Goestenkors said she did not think her team played with enough energy. That was not the real problem-Duke just could not match N.C. State's emotion.
All the Wolfpack needed to do for inspiration was look at their stoic leader on the bench.
"Since Kay's come back, any game that you've seen them play, they play with great emotion, great passion," Goestenkors said. "This is not the first time that I've seen it. I see it every time they go on the court."
The Wolfpack improbably completed comeback after comeback and, after a while, it seemed as if the basketball gods simply were not going to let N.C. State lose.
But when the Wolfpack whittled Duke's lead down to three points with 3:22 remaining, it did not seem as if the Blue Devils would collapse.
And then, at precisely the right time, the breaks started to go N.C. State's way.
Just as she had all game, Waner started on the low block opposite the Duke bench and ran around two low-post screens looking for a three-pointer right in front of her teammates and coaches.
The sophomore guard would have caught the ball, nailed the shot and ran back to midcourt still holding the follow-through. Yow would have called timeout, Waner would have chest-bumped Harding and Goestenkors would have let out a wry smile, thinking, 'She did it again.' It would have been the dagger.
Of course, none of that happened. Waner slipped.
Coming off the second pick, Waner tripped on a wet piece of hardwood and face-planted on the court. The would-be assist sailed out of bounds.
After the game, the emotional Yow thanked the gods for allowing her to be in a position to coach from the bench. Perhaps she should have lauded their timeliness as well.
On the next possession, Ashley Key hit a layup-63-62 Duke. After a Wanisha Smith offensive foul, Gillian Goring grabbed an offensive rebound and made the putback to put the Wolfpack up one. Duke eventually re-took the lead, but the aura surrounding the top-ranked team in the land had evaporated. Accordingly, the Wolfpack closed the game on a 5-0 run.
It might be easy to blame the Blue Devils for losing leads and not making shots. There is a difference, however, between a poor shooting performance and a lack of execution. The Blue Devils executed the plays-they just could not find the basket.
Duke can take plenty of positives from this loss. It will still likely get the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. It will still play four pseudo-home games in Raleigh and Greensboro on the path to Cleveland for the Final Four. The long-term implications of this game are relatively minimal.
The Blue Devils will eventually have their day.
On Saturday, though, Kay Yow and the Wolfpack had theirs.
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