RALEIGH, N.C. — Down 20 points on the road with just 19 minutes remaining, it looked like a listless Duke team was spiraling towards its first loss of the season.
Then Jasmine Thomas and the rest of the veteran Blue Devils orchestrated one of the greatest comebacks in program history.
Mounting a furious charge that ended with Chelsea Gray hitting a driving layup with 20 seconds left, Duke escaped Reynolds Coliseum with a shocking 65-64 win.
“How many teams do you know that are down 20 and come back and win?” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “That’s a very special thing.”
In front of a large home crowd, the Wolfpack (9-10, 1-4 in the ACC) started the game on a tear offensively, and pounced on the uncharacteristically cold-shooting Blue Devils (19-0, 5-0). Sophomore Marissa Kastanek’s three at the 9:33 mark ballooned the N.C. State lead to 12, and the Wolfpack would extend the margin to 18 by the end of the half. Although the No. 3 Blue Devils executed well in the half court and had a number of open looks, the shots simply weren’t dropping in the first half—Duke shot an abysmal 21.9 percent from the field and went 0-for-6 from behind the arc.
“We missed a lot of easy shots.... They made everything,” McCallie said. “Frankly, I think we were affected by things not going our way.”
Kody Burke’s jumper 23 seconds into the second period put N.C. State ahead by 20, but juniors Shay Selby and Kathleen Scheer entered the game and sparked an immediate improvement on the defensive end that allowed Duke to chip away at the Wolfpack lead. Selby’s three from the corner gave the Blue Devils life for the first time all game. And Duke’s trap defense began to force N.C. State turnovers, increasing the pace of the game to a point where the Wolfpack simply couldn’t keep up.
“We allowed Duke to score, and they made baskets. When they made those baskets they could get into their press,” N.C. State head coach Kellie Harper said, fighting back tears in the postgame press conference. “They couldn’t do that in the first half because they didn’t score.”
In all, the Blue Devils forced 14 turnovers in the second half that translated into 14 points, most of which came in the transition game. With a marked advantage depth-wise over the Wolfpack, which have been limited by injuries this season, Duke’s ability to rotate players allowed it to play a high-energy fullcourt trap for the entirety of the second half. Under heavy pressure, N.C. State’s guards struggled to create any type of offensive rhythm, and the Wolfpack scored just 24 points in the final 20 minutes.
Gray’s deep three with just under eight minutes remaining cut the lead to 10, and according to Krystal Thomas, sealed N.C. State’s fate.
“We were down ten, and I know Jasmine said at that time, ‘We’re down ten, let’s go’.... We knew from that point on we were winning, no matter what,” Thomas said.
Krystal Thomas was a force in the paint against an overmatched Wolfpack frontline, and her rebounding down the stretch extended Duke’s possessions and got the Blue Devils critical second-chance points. After a Jasmine Thomas 3-pointer brought Duke within two, Krystal Thomas’s offensive rebound and reverse layup evened the score at 61 with just under three minutes left. On the next possession, Thomas cleaned up a Scheer miss and finished again under the basket to make it 63-62.
Her team now down one, Kastanek drove to the rim and was fouled while shooting, and the 76 percent free-throw shooter drained both at the line with 30 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, however, Gray had the ball at the top of the 3-point line and blew past her defender, scooping a shot off the glass to give Duke a lead it wouldn’t give up.
“I was looking for Jasmine at first and they were face-guarding her, and the whole defense shifted to that side. I just took it to the rack,” Gray said.
Comeback complete.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.