March 3, 2006

Box Score

Virginia Tech 56, Duke 69

 

GREENSBORO, N.C. - After a 73-62 home loss to the Duke Blue Devils earlier this season, head coach Beth Dunkenberger said her team would need to hold Duke in the 60s to have a shot to beat them. On March 3, in the second round of the ACC tournament, the No. 7-seeded Hokies accomplished that feat but still came out on the losing end, 69-56, to the No. 2-seeded Blue Devils.

The loss leaves the Hokies at 20-9 and awaiting word on on an NCAA Tournament bid. Duke improved to 26-2 with the win and will move on to face the winner of the Maryland/Georgia Tech game in the semifinals.

Tech got the defensive effort that it needed in the first half to make an upset look like a possibility. After the Blue Devils scored five points in the first two minutes, the Hokies matched them basket for basket over the remaining 18 minutes before the break and trailed just 28-22 at intermission.

Duke's 28 points was its third-lowest one-half tally of the season and the Hokies managed it by forcing 17 Blue Devil turnovers and keeping them off the offensive glass. Duke could not even manage a single offensive rebound in the first 20 minutes of action. The 17 turnovers Tech forced resulted in a 12-5 advantage in points off of turnovers for the underdogs.

The problem for the Hokies was that the Blue Devils were equally as stingy. Duke forced 15 Tech turnovers and rarely allowed the Hokies an open look when Tech was in a halfcourt set.

The first half saw its share of attrition as well. For Tech, both Megan Finnerty and Kerri Gardin were assessed two first half fouls for the second game in a row. Finnerty's came very early and limited her to only four minutes of action. Gardin's second came late but still forced her to the bench for four minutes. Center Nare Diawara was in the midst of a monster half as well before taking an elbow from Chante Black with two minutes left in the first half. The elbow opened up a cut in Diawara's lip and she had to come out of the game.

Both Gardin and Diawara had been unstoppable in the first half, registering identical eight-point, five-rebound lines. Diawara was not even on the Tech bench when the second half started, though.

For Duke, leading scorer Monique Currie picked up her second foul when Tech's Roshana Jackson drew a charge, which resulted in Currie watching the final 10 minutes of the first half from the bench. Point guard Lindsey Harding injured her left shoulder early in the game and left courtside, but returned to action midway through the first half. Center Alison Bales also came off limping late in the first and did not return until the second half.

Both teams scored six points coming out of the break, but an 8-0 Duke run over four minutes gave the Blue Devils the breathing room they needed, 42-28. Even Diawara's return at the 15-minute mark could not spark the Hokies. Duke scored on seven of eight possessions at one point in extending its advantage to 17 points, 52-35, with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Five straight points by Dawn Chriss got the Hokies back to within 12; however, Duke pushed the lead back to 17 points on two separate occasions. A 9-3 Hokie run, in which Carrie Mason scored seven of the points, brought Tech to within 11 points, 60-49, but the Hokies could not break the double-digit deficit barrier. Tech cut the deficit to 11 on two more occasions in the final minute, but Duke's Jessica Foley put the game on ice with a 3-pointer and two free throws to provide the final score.

Tech had its opportunities to pull off the big upset but just couldn't quite get it done. The Hokies missed several layups, including a wide-open one by Chriss on Tech's first possession of the game. Mason, who had been torching the nets recently, was only 1-of-6 from 3-point range. Two of those were desperation heaves with the shot-clock running down, but the other four were relatively open looks, three of which rimmed out. And the Hokies missed the front end of two one-and-one opportunities in the first half.

"To win a game like this, we've got to knock down some easy open shots early," Dunkenberger said. "We've got to stay focused on that defensive end and not have mental breakdowns, and we've got to take better care of the ball. When we can do those things, we'll be able to step up and beat a team of this caliber."

The Hokies played strong defense throughout, forcing 31 Duke turnovers in the game and limiting the Blue Devils to a season-low nine assists. Duke only grabbed two offensive rebounds in the game as well.

"We were forcing turnovers, but we've got to knock down easy shots," Dunkenberger said. "We missed an awful lot of layups early on that would've given us a little more confidence and maybe would've gotten them (Duke) a little more jittery early on."

A big reason for Duke only getting two offensive rebounds was the play of Gardin. The senior power forward was a monster on the glass, yanking down 15 boards, 12 on the defensive end. She also scored 11 points to register the 12^th double-double of the season and the 23^rd of her career. The game marked her third straight with double-digit points and rebounds.

Chriss and Mason led the Hokies in scoring with 13 points apiece. After the big first half, Diawara scored just one point and did not collect any rebounds in the second half. Currie led Duke with 13 points of her own despite logging just 23 minutes on the court. Mistie Williams and Alison Bales chipped in 11 and 10 points for the winning cause, respectively.

Tech's spot in the NCAA Tournament should be secure, but the Hokies will need to wait until the Women's NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday, March 13 to know for sure. The Hokies have an RPI in the top 15 in the country and five of their nine losses have come against teams ranked in the top five in the country - three to Duke and one each to UNC and Maryland. The possible destinations for the first- and second-round games are Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Tucson, Norfolk, Trenton, N.J., West Lafayette, Ind., and State College, Pa.