January 7, 2007

Box Score

Virginia Tech 54, Duke 86

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - For the second time in as many games, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team squared off against a team ranked in the top three in the country, and for the second time they came up short, falling at home to the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils 86-54. The Hokies fell to 10-7 with the loss and 1-2 in the ACC, while Duke remained perfect at 16-0, 2-0 in the conference.

Tech dropped its last outing on the road to No. 2 UNC, 102-68.

The Hokies came out with a lot of fight and went toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils for the first 11:30 of the game. Duke led by as many as 19-12 early, but a 6-0 spurt by the Hokies cut the Blue Devil lead to just one, 19-18.

However, at that point, Duke began exploiting one of Tech's Achilles' heels - its 3-point defense. Tech opponents have shot nearly 38 percent from beyond the arc this season and the Blue Devils freed themselves for three in a row in a span of 1:08 to turn a 1-point lead into a 10-point advantage. Abby Waner drained two of them and her sister, Emily Waner, drilled the other.

"I liked the intensity that we started the game off with," head coach Beth Dunkenberger said. "But they knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers and then they started to get some confidence and flow."

The Hokies stayed close by not allowing one of its other Achilles' heels - free-throw shooting - to hurt them. Tech entered the game shooting just 63.5 percent from the charity stripe, but converted 11-of-12 in the first half against the Blue Devils (91.7 percent).

Even more problematic, from Tech's perspective, was its lack of transition defense. After every Duke defensive rebound or forced turnover, the Blue Devils looked to use their athleticism and run the court, and they did so with a great deal of success. Duke outscored the Hokies 18-0 in fast break points in the first half, which helped it to its 41-27 halftime advantage. The biggest beneficiary of this was Wanisha Smith, who scored 14 first-half points for Duke.

Duke built its lead to as many as 22 in the second half, 63-41, with 10:18 remaining in the game. At that point, Dunkenberger put her five top scorers on the floor for one last push and it paid off at first as the Hokies ran off eight unanswered to get the deficit back down to 14 points, 63-49.

Duke called a timeout to stem Tech's momentum and it worked. The Blue Devils went on a 23-2 run over the next six minutes to turn a comfortable lead into a rout. Duke continued to outrun the Hokies, outscoring Tech 32-4 in transition for the game.

"I thought certainly in stretches we played well enough to defeat a team that's undefeated and ranked in the top three in the country," Dunkenberger said. "Unfortunately, we had stretches where our transition defense was poor, and when we got tired, our half-court defense struggled a little bit.

"That's the difference between a top-three team in the country and everybody else. When you make mistakes, they make you pay. When you don't get back in transition, they've got lay-ups and 3s."

Kirby Copeland led the Hokies with 17 points, while Nare Diawara and Brittany Cook joined her in double figures with 14 and 12 points, respectively. The Blue Devils were led by Lindsey Harding and Abby Waner, who scored 20 points apiece. Smith finished with the 14 she scored in the first half while Carrem Gay contributed 11.

Diawara limited Duke senior center Alison Bales to just five points, but Bales did block five Tech shots, giving her 357 for her career and moving her into 14^th on the NCAA's all-time list.

Tech's next game will take place on Wednesday, January 10 against UNC Greensboro. The game is part of a doubleheader with both the men's and women's team facing the Spartans at the Greensboro Coliseum. The women's game will tip off at 5 p.m.