Tag Archives: Chelsea Gray

Duke Basketball

Duke Women defeat Miami to earn top seed in the ACC Tournament

The Duke Blue Devils clinched the top seed in the upcoming ACC Women's Basketball tournament with a 74-64 win over 5th ranked Miami. With the victory Duke improved their conference mark to a legue leading 14-1 and 23-4 overall while Miami fell to 13-3 in the ACC and 24-4 overall.

Duke was led in scoring by freshman sensation Elizabeth Williams who dropped 19 points to go with 9 rebounds. Her play and 10 points from Allison Vernerey helped the Blue Devils dominate the Hurricanes by a 50-16 margin in the paint.

Chelesea Gray dished out 9 dimes to go with her 12 points and her play earned the praise of Miami Coach and former Duke player, Katie Meyer. Haley Peters was also a force in the paint with 12 points and 7 rebounds.

The Duke defense forced 21 Miami turnovers, forcing Meyers to go small as the game progressed. The Blue Devils aso held a 17-9 scoring edge off turnovers and a 10-5 margin on fast break points. And the Blue Devils bench was solid despite the injury shortened bench outscoring Miami 19-11.

Duke built a 14 point lead at the 5:41 mark in the 2nd half but a furious Miami comeback cut the lead to 3 with 1:52 left in the game, but Duke who struggled from the freee throw stripe connected on a few down the stretch which helped them to the final margin of victory, a 74-64 win.

The Blue Devils have now won or shared 11 ACC regular season titles. Coach P has 10 wins against top 10 teams since her tenure at Duke. The Blue Devils finished the season 13-1 at home and Duke has now wons 30 straight ACC game in a row in Cameron.

The Blue Devils will next travel to North Carolina on Sunday at 3:00 Duke vs Miami Photo Gallery from BDN

Duke Basketball

#5 Duke dominates #24 North Carolina to remain unbeaten in the ACC play

Tricia Liston ties her career high with 23 points - Rick Crank Photo

DURHAM, N.C. - The Duke Blue Devil women dominated their arch rival North Carolina in Cameron Indoor Stadium last evening and in the process pushed their ACC leading record to 10-0, 19-3 overall.  The Blue Devils zone defense stymied the Tar Heels (7-3 in the ACC, 17-5 overall) as they took a dominant 50-24 lead at the half and eventually won the game by a lopsided 96-56 score.

Tricia Liston led the way for Duke as they rolled in the first half going 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 3 from the three point stripe.    Liston ended the game with tying a career high with 23 points and 7 rebounds from the guard spot. "She had ice in here veins tonight and was calm and cool on the court," said Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie.

The Blue Devil put 5 players in double figures led by the aforementioned Liston.  Richa Jackson added 17, Chelsea Gray 15, Elizabeth Williams 13 and Shea Selby 10 points respectively.  Williams ended the game with her fifth double-double adding 10 rebounds to her point total and she  dished out 5 assists.

The Blue Devils dominated the paint against North Carolina outscoring them 44-26 and out-rebounded them by a 45-34 margin.  Once Duke took a big lead in the half, they never looked back and the Tar Heels were never a threat to stage a comeback.  The Blue Devils also benefited from a stellar fastbreak  scoring 25 points.

And the three point ball was good for Duke who went 10 of 20 for 30 points opposed to 2 of 14 for UNC.  "I thought they would eventually start missing but they didn't," said UNC Coach Sylvia Hatchell.

Duke also dished 23 dimes and collected 9 blocks to the Tar Heels 1.  The assist total tied their highest mark in the ACC this season.  Elizabeth Williams had 6 of those blocks as the freshman sensation continued to impress.  Her block total made her the all time freshman leader in the ACC and the total of 85 ranks 10th on the all time list for Duke.

Everything worked right for the Blue Devils tonight and there was a great crowd atmosphere which Coach McCallie praised in the post game press conference.  She was very pleased with the win and said that when her team clicked and moved the ball they would be tough to beat.  Interestingly, McCallie joked that she would cook for the students if they continued to turn out, saying she didn't even know how to.  I must disagree with her though, for tonight she served up some serious home cooking as her troops send the Heels packing with a dominating victory.

Notes of interest - The point differential was the the second largest against North Carolina and the 96 points was second to 97 in 2003.   Duke shot 54.4% from the field, the ninth time this season over 50%.  The 96 points were the most against an ACC team this season.  The 10-0 start in the ACC this season is a best for Coach McCallie.  Duke won their 28th straight ACC game in Cameron.

 

 

Duke Women's Basketball

Duke defeats Maryland 80-72 to remain atop the ACC – Post Game Videos

DURHAM, N.C. - The Duke Blue Devils defeated the Maryland Terrapins 80-72 and in the process remain atop the ACC with a 7-0 record while pushing their season record to 16-2.  This was quite simply a very competitive and well played game where neither team missed a free throw and there were by 19 turnovers combined.

The Blue Devils had five players in double figures with Haley Peters leading the way with 21 points, a career high on 10 of 12 shooting from the field.  Some of her success was ffrom the fact that Elizabeth Williams drew a crowd every time she touched the ball.  Williams, the freshman sensation, ended the game with a stat line of 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal.

Also in double figures for Duke were Chelsea Gray with 17 points and an eye popping 11 assists, prompting Coach McCallie to kid that she needed more rebounds in the post game press conference.  Gray protected the ball well as Duke had a season low 9 turnovers.  Richa Jackson added 11 points and Allison Vernerey 10 as the other double figure scorers.

The Blue Devils also won the battle of the boards over a Maryland team that was ranked 3rd in the nation in rebounding margin by a 41-30 advantage promting Coach P to say, "We read about the rebounds in the locker room - four, five, eight, five, five, three," as she scrolled the stat sheet.  She continued, "When you do things like as a team, you're powerful."

And Duke did show terrific balance on the offensive end with Chelsea Gray making most of the calls on splendid to the eyes offensive sets.  The Blue Devils were crisp and efficient but so were the game Terrapins for most of the game.  Duke went to  bit of a half court trap press and that helped them to get a bit of a working margin or lead.

The Blue Devils were very effective in the paint where 46 of their 80 points were scored and they had 16 offensive boards which was impressive. "It was a great womens basketball game and it was nice to have it in Cameron," said McCallie.  She then said, "The quality of the game was the highest quality of game I've had since having to good fortune to coach in Cameron."

And she wasn't kidding for on this afternoon, Duke and Maryland gave fans more than their moneys worth in a game where the lead was exchanged 13 times.  Duke will next face Clemson on the road this coming Friday before their big home game with traditional power UConn the following Monday.

Here are Coach P's post game comments from BDN Video, followed by another video with the games high scorer, Haley Peters -