Facing a 45-37 deficit early in the second half against Virginia, No. 12 Duke saw a win, a third-place conference finish and a 78-game home winning streak against unranked opponents slipping away.
With a possible Cavalier upset looming, junior Chante Black put the Blue Devils squarely on her back.
Black scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Duke defeated Virginia 78-70 Sunday afternoon in Duke's final home game of the regular season.
After hitting the first Blue Devil field goal of the half on a putback, the center became an imposing presence down low, hitting two consecutive layups over the Cavalier's Aisha Mohammed. Grabbing another offensive board off an Abby Waner miss, Black nailed a short jumper, fading away and drawing the foul to bring the Blue Devils back to within two.
She scored eight of her points as the Blue Devils (21-7, 10-3 in the ACC) clawed back to within striking distance of Virginia (20-8, 8-4).
"I just love when Chante plays her game," Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "There's a battle going on in those matchups and things of that nature. But I love the way Chante can go inside and out as a great shooting post-a very agile, quick post."
For much of the contest, Black and Mohammed battled in the paint, crashing the boards and trading layups. As both players eventually found themselves in foul trouble with six minutes left, the physical play down low calmed down, with neither center wanting to leave the game at a crucial moment.
Then, it was freshman Jasmine Thomas and senior Wanisha Smith's time to take over for the Blue Devils, as the two guards drove into the paint and exploited Mohammed's vulnerability. After Smith tied the game with two free throws, the two guards each hit a layup in less than a minute to put Duke ahead 65-61.
But it was junior Abby Waner who deflated any chance for a Cavalier comeback. After missing her three previous attempts from behind the arc, Waner calmly nailed a deep 3-pointer with six seconds left on the shot clock, putting the Blue Devils ahead 68-61 with less than three minutes remaining.
"We let her get away for one shot," Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan said. "And that was a killer for us. That was a dagger."
For much of the first half, Duke could not distance itself from the Cavaliers due to poor shooting. After converting only 34.4 percent of their shots in the opening period, the Blue Devils vastly improved for the remainder of the game, hitting 55.6 percent in the second half.
Playing in her final home game, Smith's leadership and experience proved beneficial for Duke down the stretch, as the guard hit 6-of-8 from the free throw line to keep the lead at seven with a minute left in the game. Smith finished 10-for-12 from the charity stripe in the game.
"I just had to go out there and play as hard as I could," Smith said. "I did notice when we were getting a lot of foul calls to attack the basket. I felt like that was one of the things that I needed to do to get to the line and knock down some free throws."
The close, physical game against the Cavaliers may be just the thing the Blue Devils need going into their final conference game at North Carolina March 2.
"We got better as a team," McCallie said. "We picked it up and got better, and it really had a flavor of a tournament environment."
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