Feb. 8--Duke Crushes UNC 64-53

Yess!!!! I saw this game and the Devils rocked. I actually had an uneasy feeling the whole game, thinking the Devils were going to falter. At the half, if I'm not mistaken, they had somewhere between an eight to ten point lead. I turned to my sister and said: okay, I love the Blue Devils but methinks they're going to find a way to lose this game. Indeed, they started the second half really sluggishly. They let UNC come back to tie the game. THEN the Blue Devils showed what they're made of. They regrouped, they never panicked, and they put those damn Latta-led Tar Heels away. I think there were about 2 minutes left and they began making some shots (which weren't falling in the first part of the 2nd half) and I began to feel this overwhelming feeling of pride and joy. Granted, this is not the National Championship game. For this fan anyway, this win should be taken as a good sign, as well as a bragging point. The sign of great teams are when they are able to win even when they were just clutching onto the game with a single finger.

Huge, huge game for Lindsey Harding. She was a master point guard during this game. I was so impressed with the way she calmed the offense down (even with some pretty bad turnovers in the game, not necessarily by her).

Wanisha Smith kept making her shots, which was instrumental to this win. There was this point in the first half when Ali and the rest of the bigs kept missing their easy shots (yes, I was yelling my head off over here). Anyway, she'd pull up from midrange and hit those shots, keeping us with the advantage in the first half.

Not sure about Alison Bales shooting, etc. (and she got blocked like 3 times at least), but her defense was awesome. She had 7 blocks, fyi, and I didn't even notice it. She was doing something else more impressively. She wouldn't let the UNC players post up. Almost always, she'd force them out of the key and take away that shot, forcing them to pass or to make a lower percentage shot. She was just too strong and Duke will need her to be that good at defending the paint for them to have a shot at the NCAA tournament.

Abby Waner seemed to me to have a slow game at the beginning. But I checked out the stats and she had a pretty good game. She missed all her three-pointers, but she scored this one key basket at the end of the game that just took the winds out of UNC's sails. Also, there was this one shot in the first half where she drove baseline and made this little scoop shot which hit nothing but net. Now THAT was cool. There was this other posseession when she had the ball and was maneuvering through the UNC defense when for some strange reason, they just parted and she had this really nifty looking layup. :) Funny how I remember actual Waner possessions. Obviously, I'm a Waner fan.

The rest of the team played well as well. Good effort from the whole team.

I was also very impressed with Coach Goestenkors. I was freaking out over here and it's not even my team. She seemed to be calm the whole time. In fact, when the Devils were trying to seal the game with FTs, Lindsey Harding missed her two shots.Then someone else tried to hit from the stripe. They showed Harding and Coach G talking and Coach G was laughing about it with Harding and was like "What are you doing?" Then she did a pretend free throw. Harding was laughing sheepishly as well and trying to explain something (not sure about this. maybe she was just talking about the next play). Anyway, if I had to play for a coach, I'd want to play for someone like that. Also, love that at the end of the game, she was REAALLY happy. Almost giddy in fact. Go Coach G!!!!!

Top 5 Scorers:
Wanisha Smith--17
Abby Waner--16
Lindsey Harding--16
Alison Bales--7
Joy Cheek--6

Top 5 Rebounders:
Alison Bales--14
Lindsey Harding--9
Carrem Gay--5
Abby Waner--4
Wanisha Smith--4

Top 2 Assists:
Lindsey Harding--7
Bales, A. Waner, Smith--2

Top 2 Steals:
Alison Bales--4
Abby Waner--2

Top Blocks:
Alison Bales--7

LETS GO DUKE!!!!!!!