RALEIGH - When Duke's leading scorer Chante Black was sidelined with foul trouble for much of the first half, the Blue Devils called upon a player becoming more and more familiar with making big baskets when her team needs them the most.
Sophomore Karima Christmas finished tied for a team-high 17 points and scored 11 in the first half, including nine of Duke's final 13 points in the period, to keep the Blue Devils within striking distance of N.C. State after the Wolfpack took a 14-point lead.
"Karima was all over the place in terms of slashing and getting to the basket and really causing matchup problems for them," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said.
But before Christmas made her presence felt, N.C. State capitalized on the benching of Black, who picked up her second foul with just more than 13 minutes remaining in the first half. The Wolfpack went on a 15-2 run and jumped out to a 28-14 lead, its largest of the game, when Christmas knocked down a 3-pointer and caught fire.
She followed up that shot with a jumper after rebounding her own miss and then pulled down another offensive rebound two possessions later, scoring again to account for seven consecutive Blue Devil points.
Her basket with 1:58 left in the half brought Duke within eight, a deficit the Blue Devils settled for given Black's scoreless first period and junior forward Joy Cheek's two points at intermission.
Christmas, on the other hand, did her best to fill the scoring void down low, as six of her 11 first-half points came in the paint.
"Karima's very strong, very talented, and she didn't back down," McCallie said. "Attacking the paint was something I thought Karima was really good at. [She] just used her strength and athleticism to go by them, and that's really important that you don't just settle for outside shots because that long rebound pushes their fast break."
Duke tied the game up in the second half without the production of the 5-foot-11 guard, but when the Wolfpack went ahead by three with 8:10 remaining, Christmas came through in the clutch again. On the Blue Devils' ensuing possession, she blew by her defender and drove all the way to the hoop, scoring a tough layup inside.
Displaying excellent court awareness two and a half minutes later, Christmas caught the entire N.C. State squad off-guard after the team believed it had committed a shot clock violation. She wisely did not hesitate when the buzzer sounded, going coast-to-coast for an easy lay-in to give Duke a three-point lead with just more than five minutes left in regulation.
As well as Christmas played in regulation, perhaps her most crucial play of the game came in overtime when the Wolfpack intercepted senior guard Abby Waner's bounce pass and had a chance to tie the game trailing 57-54. But Christmas would not give N.C. State a chance to get down the court, ripping the ball out of Nikitta Gartrell's hands near midcourt and taking it the other way for a layup that would cement Duke's lead and help it to victory.
Christmas' performance against the Wolfpack was the latest in a four-game stretch in which she has averaged 12.8 points per game-almost twice her season average.
But even more important than Christmas' statistical output is her composure and play-making ability when the game is on the line and the ball finds her hands.
And Monday, with her team's leader saddled with foul trouble, that poise helped keep Duke perfect in conference play.
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