GREENSBORO - The Duke Blue Devils are headed to the ACC Tournament Championship game with74-66 a victory over a pesky Georgia Tech team. The Blue Devils dominated the paint area outscoring the Yellow Jackets by a 28-16 margin in the paint.
The Yellow Jackets cut a large Duke lead down to 2 with 7:10 left, but Duke bounced back on back to back baseline buckets from Karima Christmas and Haley Peters and then another Christmas lay in and then one from Thomas which sparked an 8-2 run and that edge carried the Blue Devils through to victory.
Karima Christmas had a monster game for the winners throwing in a team high 20 points to go with 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. When Duke needed a bucket or a play she seemed will to take on that role.
The Blue Devils came out red hot in the first half shooting an impressive 68,2% from the field and that effort ranks 7th in the schools history. Duke enjoyed a 13-5 edge off turnovers as well despite the Yellow Jackets vaunted press.
Jasmine Thomas added 12 points, while Chelsea Gray tossed in 10 as the only double figure scorers save the aforementioned Christmas. Once again, Coach P played 10 players but her bench got a bit shorter via minutes played for some players which is a combination a shortened bench and match ups.
With the win Duke goes to 28-3 on the season and they play the winner of the North Carolina-Miami game at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. That said, let's have a nice turnout to support the Blue Devils in Greensboro tomorrow.
Check back for videos. We had a hard time downloading them in Greensboro but will try when we get to Chapel Hill for tonight's men's game.
The Duke Women earned a share of the ACC Regular Season Championship with a 66-58 victory over arch rival North Carolina before a sold out crowd in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The win pushed the Blue Devils overall record to 26-3 going into this weeks Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
While this would not be Karima Christmas, Jasmine Thomas and Krystal Thomas's last game in Cameron due to hosting the first round in the NCAA Tournament, it was their last regular season game. That meant senior day speeches and as always they were heart felt and emotional.
The Blue Devils also took turns cutting down the net as they celebrated the victory but you could tell this wasn't the net they coveted and Coach McCallie otherwise known as Coach P, alluded to that on the post game press conference.
As for the game itself, the Blue Devils found themselves trailing at the half to the pesky Tar Heels who rolled out to an early 15-8 lead. Duke settled down after the half and their defense allowed them to take a 38-37 lead on a Karima Christmas three pointer and the Blue Devils never trailed again.
Jasmine Thomas gave Duke a commanding 56-42 lead on a three pointer of her own at the 9:42 mark and that allowed them to cruise to a 66-58 win. Thomas led Duke with 17 points and 5 assists to go with 2 steals.
But it was Karima Christmas who posted a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds and 6 assists of her own. Fellow senior Krystal pulled down a game high 13 rebounds and you'll see her in the videos below.
Duke got a spark from Allison Vernerey too, where she tossed in 11 points making and grabbed 6 rebounds and swatted back 2 shots on her birthday. Shay Selby played with an edge adding 7 points as did freshman Tricia Liston.
Chelsea Gray who is healing an ankle sprian tried to make a go of it but wasn't successful. She is now day to day but expected to play in the tournament.
Duke outscored North Carolina 26-16 in the paint and outrebounded their rival 52-46. The win was the 23rd in a row in Cameron Indoor Stadium where Duke went undefeated this season. Duke will now take on the winner of the Virginia-Wake Forest winner having won the tie breaker and earning the number one seed.
The Duke Blue Devils will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in a sold out Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday afternoon and that will be the final regular season game for Krystal Thomas. BDN caught up to senior big this afternoon and chatted with her about the regular season finale. against their arch rival. In fact, Coach P makes an impromptu appearance in the video which is cool. See it for yourself and link it for all Duke Women's Basketball fans to see. A side note, come out to the game despite the sell out for there should be a few tickets outside the arena. If Duke wins, they are the regular season champions and those who make the game will experience something really cool which I will keep quiet for now.
DURHAM - The Duke Women demolished Clemson 92-37 to move to 6-0 in the ACC and 20-0 overall and they remain the only undefeated team in all of women's college basketball. Of course, there next game is against Connecticut in Storr's in a game that will certainly bring in more than a few casual observers.
Once again, Coach Joanne P. McCallie utilized her whole bench as she has done all season in an effort to build depth. And that's one thing this years team certainly has as different freshman from a very talented class are stepping up.
Duke was once again led by their senior All American leader Jasmine Thomas who tallied 14 points to go with her game high 7 assists. She was one of five Blue Devils in double figures.
The Blue Devils rolled out to a 59-12 half time lead in the first half and that was more than enough as they coasted the rest of the way to an eventual 92-37 win.
"Our defense was terrific in the first half with the pressure we employed. Any time you hold a team to 12 points in a half, you've done your job," said Coach McCallie.
Duke outscored the visitors by a 39-12 score off turnovers where they forced a whopping 36 of them. The Blue Devils dominated the paint as well where they held a 30-16 edge. And the deep bench McCallie is grooming scored 45 points to the Tigers 16.
"We found our transition game and that created easy buckets by our running the floor," said McCallie.
The win was also the Blue Devils 20th straight in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke has won 18 out of the last 21 games with the Tigers.
The easy first half brought smiles to the players and staff who realized that they were clicking on all cylinders before their showdown with #2 Connecticut in a game that tips at 7:00 EST on ESPN 2 this coming Monday.
"It's a focus game, a poise game." stated McCallie when questioned on how to beat UConn. Then Thomas added it's a great opportunity and that is indeed true. What McCallie was saying is that Duke must maintain their poise in a hostile environment with a team that has their ears pinned back.
If Duke can emulate their first half performance against Clemson, then they have an opportunity to gain a memorable road win, but as we all know, beating the Huskies in their house is a tall order. Still, if you are looking for a list of teams that could pull off that feat, these Blue Devils are at the top of the list.
Thomas kniocks down a season high 24 points to lead Duke past Kentucky. Rick Crank Photo/BDN
DURHAM - Make no mistake about it, the third ranked Blue Devils win over tenth rated Kentucky wasn't pretty to watch but the result was all roses for Coach McCallie's troops. Much like the Xavier game, Duke fought hard on defense and hung on to defeat another top ten club while playing one the the nations toughest early season schedules.
An early 8-0 first half run put the Blue Devils up 16-10 but the Wildcats put it back together and went on a run of their own to tie the game up but Duke pulled ahead again with a late first half run giving them a 31-22 lead. That momentum was lost when Kentucky came out and outscore the home team 8-2, putting them back in the game.
Kentucky tied the game at 44 apiece on a Maegan Conwright free throw with 3:51 to go, but Jasmine Thomas, who led Duke with 24, knocked down a jumper. But Kentucky's star Victoria Dunlap answered with two free throws on here own at the 3:13 mark.
Kentucky then took a late lead on a A'Dai Mathies lay in and the Cats were up 48-46 with under two minutes in the contest. That's when Duke reached deep and Jasmine Thomas hit nothing but net from around the free throw stripe tying the game up with 1:33 left.
The Blue Devils defense then forced a turnover and found Chelsea Gray for a runner on the baseline which put the Blue Devils up for good at 50-48. Kentucky had a chance to tie the game after Thomas hit one of two free throws, but the senior guard recovered and made a key block on Mathies who then gave her a bit of a shove in frustration.
After that play the Kentucky Coach Mathew Mitchell was hit with a technical foul and Duke held on for a 54-48 win and in the process go to 14-0 on the season while Kentucky falls to 11-2.
Duke was as always led by their senior All American Jasmine Thomas whose season high 24 points were also a game high. Thomas has a way of rising to the occasion in close ball games of late and here block may well have been the play of the game. Thomas had three blocks over the last six minutes of the game.
Chelsea Gray added 11 points for the Blue Devils as their only other double digit scorer. Gray had a team high 5 steals.
Kentucky was led by Keyla Snowden with 15 and Victoria Dunlap with 10. Dunlap is Kentucky's leading scorer and the Duke defense held here to her second lowest point total of the season, but the previous low of 7 points came when she went out with an injury.
In fact, as sluggish as the offenses were for both schools, the defense was stellar. Especially for the Blue Devils who held Kentucky to their lowest scoring output of the season, a team that averaged 80.6 ppg coming into the contest and was held 32 points shy of that average.
The Blue Devils were originally supposed to play this game on Monday night but ESPNU required them to shift the game to Tuesday. That means Duke has less than two days to prepare for rival Maryland and ACC play which begins Thursday evening. Tickets are still available for the game by visiting GoDuke or picking them up at the door on game night.
Sidebar - Duke held a 13-5 edge on 2nd chance points and a 22-2 edge off the bench. Kentucky outscored Duke in the paint 14-13 and 11-6 on fastbreak points. The 14-0 start is the best start for Coach P in her 19 years of coaching and she is now 48-4 in Cameron. Allison Vernerey had a season high ten rebounds but went just 1 of 10 from the field.
GREENSBORO - The Duke Blue Devils are headed to the ACC Tournament Championship game with74-66 a victory over a pesky Georgia Tech team. The Blue Devils dominated the paint area outscoring the Yellow Jackets by a 28-16 margin in the paint.
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