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Joy Cheek wanted to see balloons and streamers falling for her for once.  She, Karima Christmas, and Keturah Jackson made sure that it happened.  Duke beat out a determined NC State Wolfpack in a game that was much more competitive than their match a month or so ago.  Duke used a stifling defense and strong rebounding performance to make sure that NC State wasn't able to make a comeback like they did against BC.  The women used the formula like they had for the rest of the season to assure that they would finish smiling at center court.  On our part, we played a very strong game and recovered from a shaky start to regain control of the game and bring it back under control.  NC state took an early lead, but then we turned on the defense, getting some very nice steals and capitalizing off of the turnovers to put up a good run and retake the lead.  While Jasmine led the team again and was named the MVP of the tournament, it was a team effort that brought us to the promised land.  4 players had 6 or more rebounds, three players scored in double figures, and multiple players got steals.  15 of NC State's 23 turnovers in the game were steals, meaning live-ball turnovers that led to offensive opportunities for the women.  Karima was the second choice for player of the game for Duke, as she went 3-3 from 3-point range and had 4 steals, making herself useful on both sides of the ball.

Duke also turned in a strong defensive effort, holding the RoY of the conference to 3 points on 1-6 shooting, which was the difference in the game.  She makes a couple more of those shots, and it's a different ball game down the stretch.  Gartrell and Holston both gave inspired performanes themselves, with Holston going 7-11 in the game.  Duke missed defending Holston a fair amount, giving her open looks, which she burned them on, and the same could be said for reserve Strachan, who burned us for three 3-pointers towards the end of the game, making it a much closer affair.  Specifically, she found herself open twice around 6 minutes in the game to sink a couple, cutting Duke's lead to 9.  That was about the most sacry part of the game, since it felt like we had it under control until they started hitting a couple of shots.  Thankfully, Coach P was able to calm the team down and get things back in hand.

What was most interesting was that NC State stopped fouling so soon in the game, with 1.5 minutes left and down by 10.  That's a surmountable deficit, especially considering Duke's penchant for missing late-game free throws.  Not that I care, mind you, because I'd rather see NC State trying to force turnovers with the clock running when we've got a lead.  The women may have committed 20 turnovers before that point, but they buckled down when it counted the most and didn't commit the turnovers that NC State wanted towards the end of the game.

The first-team for the tournament included Jas, Karima, and Joy, and it was greatly deserved as Jasmine played incredibly well in two of the three games, Karima brought composure and skill to the game and played consistently well, and Joy also gave senior leadership in turning in three strong performances as well.  The entire team played very well during the tournament, making their run to the championship and all of them deserved recognition (unfortunately, there's only two 5-member teams that get voted on, and I GUESS the other teams had good players, too).  Anyway, now, we just wait for the announcement of the brackets to see who Duke's playing against at Cameron.  They're likely locked into the 2-seed now, so we'll see who they're playing and what time on Saturday, March 20th.  We'll get a preview together once we see the bracket to discuss the first 2 rounds, in addition to the quality of the region they're in.

I know it's easy to forget with the other Duke game that was going on last night, but there was another Duke game that went on earlier in the day.  I'll do a brief write-up of both games with the hopes of giving a full write-up of Duke's triumphant return to the champion's circle tomorrow.

On Friday, Duke got all the game it could ask for against Maryland, and we slipped past a very determined, very physical Maryland team 66-64.  It was a pretty close game throughout, with Jasmine Thomas being our savior in that game.  She scores 21 points in the match, hitting from all over the place just when we needed her to.  Maryland has demonstrated that they know how to defend us from the previous two games, where the results were pretty much the same, a close, hard-fought Duke win, and this time, as with the other times, we found just the right person at just the right time.  As usual, it came down to who wanted it more, and Duke just wanted it more.  But it almost wasn't, as Duke missed 4 key free throws near the end of the game, signalling a continuation of the problem in the Carolina game.  They really need to work on their free-throw shooting, as it hasn't been stellar this year.  While a lot of the focus was on Jasmine's offensive output, one of the factors that Coach P cited in the post-game comments was Krystal's defensive effort on Lynetta Kizer in the second half.  Kizer scored early, but also got into some foul trouble down the stretch, limiting her somewhat.  She ended up with 16 points, 8 on free throws.  Possibly the biggest defensive effort was to hold Tchattttttttchouang to 4 points on the game.  Overall, it was a well-played game, and one to build on.

Which they did.  On Saturday, Duke got a slow, grind-it-out match against Georgia Tech in the semis, which they won 67-55.  Georgia Tech controlled tempo very well against Duke, keeping the game close until the 9 minute mark in the second half.  We then went on a 20-7 run over the next 7 minutes to put the game firmly under control.  Karima Christmas was the catalyst in this match, leading in scoring, rebounds, and steals, although the scoring wasn't dominated by one player as it has been in previous games.  There were 3 players in double figures, and about 3 others that were just short.  Tech played a very strong defense against Jasmine Thomas focusing on her specifically and keeping her from scoring in the first half.  What won this game was getting the right defensive plays at the right time, although it wasn't a fantastically strong overall defensive performance, allowing 40% shooting and getting out-rebounded again.  Also, the grit and determination of the women helped, as they made the plays that they needed down the stretch to take control of the game towards the end.  Al Brown said in his radio interview that they play their best basketball towards the end of the game, which was definitely the case in this outing.  In addition, we also played an incredibly clean game, only committing 11 turnovers, which helped the game down the stretch.  Special mention also goes to Joy Cheek for he 4-assist, 0-turnover performance.  It's great to see Joy doing well, and hopefully, we'll get a strong performance out of her on Sunday, as well.

Sunday's game will pit us up against a determined, but young NC State team.  Earlier in the season, we beat them soundly, 70-39 behind a strong game early from Allison Vernerey.  Hopefully, she'll be able to replicate her performance, since NC State is still really, really short and hopefully, the defense will be able to contain Kastanek and Gartrell at least as much as they did in the first match.  If Duke uses their height and their experience to their advantage, then they should be driving home with their first trophy in a couple of years.  However, it's also important to remember that this is not the same NC State team that we pounded in Reynolds, they have more experience and have since gotten a couple of strong wins to get them to the 6-seed.  They're going to fight their hardest to get this game under their new head coach, who promised when she came in to beat UNC and Duke.  It would have been nice to see BC in the finals, since I'd have liked to be able to get some revenge and show them what we're really capable of, as well as being able to pull out my Ayla Brown distraction technique, but the women will take whoever they get and we'll give them the game of their lives.  The game's at 1:00 on Fox Sports, so if you can't be at the game in person, at least watch it.  It's really nice that this year, Duke and UNC scheduled their game for Saturday and Sunday, since for as long as I can remember, the Big Game has been on the same day as the ACC women's championship.  I'm guessing they finally realized that the match was drawing attention away from a game that should be at least as big, if not a bigger deal.  And especially for Duke fans this year, where we may have a chance to see the women bring home a trophy for the case.

The 'Holes come to Cameron tonight @ 9:00 on College Gameday.  It's senior night in Cameron.  Coming off a loss to Maryland.  A win tonight guarantees at least a tie atop the ACC standings.  Time for a beatdown.

Carolina comes in on a two game winning streak, their longest of 2010.  Last time out they beat Miami at home for the programs 2000th win.  But they can still go to hell.  Since moving Henson to the post, the 'holes have played better, winning 3 of 6.  But they can still go to hell.  A win tonight would guarantee a winning season for them.  But they can still go to hell.  A loss and they finish the ACC season at 5-11, 10th overall in the conference standings.  This will likely have them face Georgia Tech on Thursday to end their misery.  But they can still go to hell.

Kenpom predicts a 83-65 win

GoDuke.com game notes

GO TO HELL CAROLINA!!!!!

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A quick update from the beach for me:

It's Maryland!  The Tar Heels proved that they weren't the team they looked like on Sunday by getting down early to Maryland and then never coming back.  Apparently, the most humorous part of the affair was when Cetera DeGraffenreid fouled out with a minute or so remaining, and refused to leave the court, just begging for a technial foul.  To her credit, Sylvia stopped the nonsense before it could go further, but the fact that it happened in the first place shows the bad character on the Carolina women's team this year.  They've showed it before, and part of their problem this year seems to arise from the attitude of the players.  In previous years, they've played with great emotion and used it to fuel their game.  However, this year, they've gotten down on themselves and never turned the emotion into good basketball.  I'm kind of hoping that the selection committee looks at the resume and sees the weakness of UNC's out-of-conference schedule, their dismal record in the last 10 games, their sub-.500 conference record, and their exit from the first round of the conference tournament as the higher-seeded team (granted, in the 8-9 game) and excludes them from the Natty tournament.  I think if they're included, a good deal of it will be on name.  They have talent in the season, but they haven't learned to use it yet.

I personally feel better with Duke playing against Maryland in their game, as we've shown that we can beat Maryland even when we're not playing a fantastic game and when they're playing a strong defensive game.  There'll be a lot of emotion in this game, with Maryland wanting to prove themselves and with Duke wanting to rebound from a poor performance earlier in the week.  This will be an amazing game to watch, hopefully.

Also, the final list of the season (I think) has been released for the season, and Senior Keturah Jackson made the all-defensive team.  Anybody who's watched the games this season knows that the defense has been orchestrated by Karima, Keturah, and Jasmine (along with the help of the imposing front-court).  And coming from possibly the best defensive team in the conference, Keturah is the woman that we most often trust to contain the strong offensive players of the other team.  This honor is definitely more than deserved for KJ!

EDIT: Another update that was pointed out to me on the forums, but Coach P won the Coach of the Year in the conference!  Congratulations to her, it's a bit surprising that she won it, considering the women were picked 2nd and finished 1st in the season, but it's likely that the fact that the women were the only team in the conference to get a win against a ranked tem outside of conference, and the team led the conference consistently on defense.  There were a couple of coaches who had a legitimate case, but the voters picked Coach P!  Congrats to her and good luck to the team!