Blue Devils make up for slow start

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - After allowing late rallies in its last two games against Florida State and Boston College, Duke wanted to come out strong in the first half against Virginia Thursday. Despite their best efforts, the Blue Devils struggled early-but the slow start allowed them to regroup early, instead of late.

"We got into a bad habit of letting teams back into games," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "We tried to defend with team defense and team rebounding, and we were on each other the entire second half to play well."

Virginia took an early 13-2 lead in the first nine minutes of the game by forcing nine Blue Devil turnovers. Duke squandered several buckets in the opening minutes by bobbling passes to the post, and the Blue Devils struggled throughout the game from beyond the arc. Points were hard to find as Virginia opened up a double-digit lead on its home floor.

But the offense eventually settled down and the Blue Devils began to attack the basket, rather than continuing to shoot from the outside. Duke outscored Virginia in the paint 16-10 in the first half, and as time expired before halftime, sophomore guard Jasmine Thomas hit a jumper at the buzzer to cap a 27-9 Duke run to close the half up eight points.

Virginia appeared to make no defensive changes to stop Duke's offense, which began the second half the same way it ended the first half. The Blue Devils continued to isolate players in the post, which opened up the lane for Thomas and Karima Christmas to penetrate with ease. Thomas found the weakness in the Virginia defense and capitalized, recording a career-high 22 points on a career-best 10-of-18 shooting night.

"The good news is that we didn't force it," McCallie said. "We took time to get the ball inside and out with the paint points, but when it got back out, we were focused on getting it back in to the paint."

And once Duke earned the lead, it kept it without much of a challenge by outrebounding the Cavaliers and forcing 19 turnovers. Virginia's two leading scorers, Lyndra Littles and Monica Wright, combined for 50 points, but because Duke shut down the rest of Virginia's players, the Cavaliers couldn't mount a comeback.

"We wanted to play physical basketball," McCallie said. "You have to. It's what happens in March. It's very physical and there are less calls as the year goes on. We played a lot more physical in this game than we did in the last game, and I think we have to continue to build on that."