Going into halftime, No. 12 Duke's sloppy offensive play had given it only a four-point lead against Michigan. It looked as if it would be another close finish against an unranked opponent, But that all changed in the first six minutes of the second half.
Joy Cheek provided a much-needed spark from behind the 3-point arc, and the Blue Devils (6-1) went on to roll against the Wolverines 60-45 Sunday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Kevin Borseth, the Wolverines' head coach, pointed to Cheek's two 3-pointers in the first 1:30 of the half as the turning point in the contest.
"[Cheek] came in there right in the nick of time at the start of the second half and got two baskets," Borseth said. "And that really separated the game."
Cheek's bombs ignited Duke's 15-4 run in the first seven minutes of the half. And on the other side of the court, the team's defense clamped down and held Michigan's shooters in check by forcing them to go 1-for-5 from the field.
The defense was strong throughout the tilt. The Blue Devils dominated on the glass with a 46-22 advantage, and played with discipline when they went after the ball. Duke only registered 11 fouls and held Michigan (5-4) to just two free throw attempts for the entire game. This stood in sharp contrast to the offense's struggles to hold onto the ball, evident in its season-high 30 turnovers.
Borseth was quick to give credit to the Blue Devils' tenacious defense.
"Duke is so big around the basket," Borseth said. "All those big kids, they just get around there and either alter your shot, change your shot, block your shot, make you rush your shot-those kind of things."
In a style of play more in line with the ACC than the Big Ten, the Wolverines relied on the long ball to keep them in the game early. They started off strong, going 4-for-6, and did not make any shots from inside the arc until there were nine minutes left in the half. Duke struggled over the same stretch, and the game went back-and-forth for the rest of the half. The Blue Devils took the halftime break as an opportunity to shake off their early struggles and get back to playing the way they know they can.
"I don't think there is anything I said that was tremendously significant," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said about her halftime talk. "We were just talking about trying to finish strong and playing our game, and we just acknowledged in the first half that we didn't do some things. We missed some shots, were off balance, things like that. We just have to focus and keep our poise. We just tried to regroup a little bit, and I thought the team did a great job. We came out, we found each other."
Duke's three senior captains-Abby Waner, Chante Black, and Carrem Gay-all stepped up in different ways in the second half. With Jasmine Thomas and Chelsea Hopkins already out due to injuries, Waner took over the point when Keturah Jackson, the team's third point guard of the season, went down with a hip pointer injury. Jackson is expected back in two days, but Waner stepped in with a team-leading six assists.
Gay came out aggressively and doubled her average scoring output, dropping in 12 points. She was also the most dominant on the boards, grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.
And Black came on strong at the end of the game, scoring seven of her team-leading 13 points in the final seven minutes.
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