It may not have been Senior Night, but that’s sure what it felt like Monday in Cameron Indoor Stadium. No. 2 Duke used a late rally led by senior captains Joy Cheek, Bridgette Mitchell and Keturah Jackson to defeat No. 7 Louisiana State, 60-52, to send the Blue Devils (29-5) to the Sweet 16 in Memphis.
In their final home game, a contest that saw seven lead changes and 15 tie scores, Cheek and Jackson overcame a slow start to score the Blue Devils’ last three baskets and extend possessions with aggressive rebounding to keep the Tigers (21-10) at bay.
And before the decisive 14-6 run to close the game, Mitchell picked up the slack by creating her own offense when her teammates were unable to run a set play, hitting jumpers from all over the outside.
“She [Bridgette] is kind of our city slicker, our tough hard-nose,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “Joy is a very tough player [and] she has a very high IQ about basketball. I know she was upset about her play early in the game but she didn’t hang her head.”
For the majority of the evening, it looked as though the Blue Devils would be stunned for the second straight year in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers abused Duke’s man-to-man defense with a motion offense run through the post. Allison Hightower racked up 11 quick points off of 5-of-5 shooting in the opening minutes, earning open looks on drives left and right. However, the speedy guard would be held to only 1-for-11 shooting the rest of the way after the Blue Devils switched to a zone.
“They played us man and I wanted to start down there and tell Joanne [McCallie] to stay in the man,” Louisiana State head coach Van Chancellor said. “When they went to that 1-2-2 zone, they’re so big in it. It makes it look like they have six players out there.
Often playing with two centers on the floor, 6-foot-4 Krystal Thomas alongside 6-foot-5 Allison Vernerey, Duke’s length kept the Tigers’ offense out of rhythm. The Blue Devils’ full-court pressure was equally disruptive, and the combination of the two caused 22 Tiger turnovers on the night, most of them traveling penalties.
“If you turn the ball over 22 times against a team this good on the road, it’s hard to come back from that. I don’t care what else you do,” Chancellor said.
Despite such dominating defense, Duke was unable to pull away from a much smaller Louisiana State squad. Once again, the Blue Devils were forced to overcome a poor shooting night by Jasmine Thomas, who never looked in sync with the rest of the offense.
Instead, Duke turned to Mitchell—an energetic defender not known for her scoring—to carry the offensive load. The senior finished with 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting in her final contest in Durham.
“I thought the difference-maker for Duke was [Bridgette] Mitchell,” Chancellor said. “Mitchell’s the one who hurt us. She made some dagger shots.”
In the end, the Blue Devils’ greatest strength was their depth. The Tigers had three players on the floor for the entire game who simply wore down by the final minutes. On the other hand, only Jasmine Thomas played more than 35 minutes for Duke, while the other four starters played about 30 apiece. On tired legs, Louisiana State could not drive or hit the necessary jumpers to hang with a Blue Devil squad that smelled blood in the water.
“I think winning those games is a lot of credit to mental toughness because you’ve got to be able to fight,” Cheek said. “You’re tired, we pressed the whole game, we’re a running team and I think we we’re able to finish these games because we’re a lot tougher mentally.”
With the win, Duke advances to the Sweet 16 in Memphis, where it will face the winner of No. 3 West Virginia and No. 11 San Diego State, who meet tonight.
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