Blue Devil Nation

Chante Black, Careem Gay, Abby Waner named captains for 09 Women's Hoops

Mark Watson — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:36:00 -0400

Chante Black is coming off and amazing season. She is one of Tri Captains for the 2009 Duke Women's Basketball team. She will be joined by fellow senior Careem Gay and the ever so popular Abby Waner.

The Cameron lights will shine for one last time on Waner and teammates Black and Gay

McCallie looking to next season

Mark Watson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:30:00 -0400

Steve Barnes of the Blue Devil Weekly on Duke Women's Hoops -

Those of you who have ridden the Space Mountain rollercoaster at Disney World should be able to relate well with the season the Duke women’s basketball team just completed.

The 25-10 campaign ended with a 77-63 loss to Texas A&M in the third round of the NCAA Tournament ...

Chante Black's career high not enough to keep the Devils alive

Mark Watson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:54:00 -0400

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (AP) — Patrice Reado scored all 17 of her points in the second half and Texas A&M overcame the loss of standout Danielle Gant to beat Duke, giving the Aggies the school's first berth in the regional finals.

Takia Starks added 15 points for second-seeded Texas A&M (29-7), which extended its winning streak to 12 games and will play either top-seeded Tennessee or fifth-seeded Notre Dame on Tuesday for berth in the Final Four.

Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said before the game that the Aggies would prefer to keep the score in the 50s or 60s against a high-octane Duke team. Third-seeded Duke (25-10) helped the Aggies with that strategy, committing 19 turnovers and never managing to get into an offensive rhythm against a team that led the Big 12 Conference in scoring defense.

Chante Black, who had a career-high 26 points and season-high 13 rebounds in a second round win over Arizona State, led the Blue Devils with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Waner Blog

Mark Watson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:03:00 -0400

DURHAM, N.C. – Well, we finally made it home – but not for long! Tuesday night was a great game versus Arizona State, and despite the not so friendly support from the Terrapins fans, we were able to pull out the win.

In case you didn’t catch the game, Chante Black was a minor 26-point, 13-rebound reason for our ...

Duke Women Fall In Final

Mark Watson — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:05:00 -0400

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Duke's impressive run at the 2008 ACC Tournament came to an end Sunday as the 12th-ranked Blue Devils fell to second-ranked North Carolina, 86-73, here at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Chante Black and Jasmine Thomas led the way for Duke with 16 points apiece while Abby Waner added 11 for Duke. Waner earned first-team all-ACC Tournament honors with a career-high ...

Duke topples Maryland to reach ACC Final

Mark Watson — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:17:00 -0500

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Wanisha Smith scored 22 points and hit 4-of-6 from behind the arc while Joy Cheek scored 16 points and had eight rebounds and five steals to lead the 12th-ranked and third-seeded Duke past fifth-ranked and second-seeded Maryland here in the semifinals of the 2008 ACC Tournament.

Duke improves to 23-8 and will now face second-ranked and top-seeded ...

Chante Black earns ACC Player of the Week

Mark Watson — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:31:00 -0500

DURHAM, N.C. – After leading 11th-ranked Duke to two Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) victories and scoring 20 or more points in both contests over the weekend, Blue Devil junior Chante Black was named ACC Player of the Week on Monday.

The honor for Black is the first of her career and marks the first time a Duke student-athlete has earned ACC Player of the Week this season. A Blue Devil has now received at least one weekly ACC award in 15 straight years.

Black averaged 21.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 1.0 blocked shot last week for the Blue Devils. On Sunday against Virginia, the junior registered a career-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks. She hit 7-of-11 field goals and 8-of-9 free throws in the game. The victory for Duke clinched the No. 3 seed for the Blue Devils in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

A product of Winston-Salem, N.C., Black registered 20 points, five rebounds, four steals and one assist in 28 minutes at Virginia Tech on Friday. The 6-5 center hit 7-of-14 field goals and 6-of-8 free throws in the contest.

On the week, Black hit 56.0 percent of her field goals and 82.4 percent from the charity stripe. In addition, Black has started all 28 games this season and has totaled double-figure scoring in 24 of those 28 contests.

Boston College’s Carolyn Swords was named ACC Rookie of the Week.

Duke will next travel down Tobacco Road to face second-ranked North Carolina on Sunday, March 2 at 5:30 p.m., in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Duke defeats Cavs to lock up third place in the ACC

Mark Watson — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:47:00 -0500

The Blue Devils closed out their home season by defeating Virginia 78-70 on Senior Day. The win assures the Devils of a third place seeding in the upcoming ACC Tournament. Wanisha Smith made two free throws with 5:04 remaining in the second half which enabled Duke to pull even at 61 apiece.

Duke then had three consecutive steals, taking advantage of two to go up 65-61. Two of those steals were made by freshman Jasmine Thomas and the other Careem Gay. The Blue Devils never looked back after trailing by nine earlier in the half eventually going on a back breaking 11-0 run.

Wanisha Smith hit this key lay up to give Duke a 63-61 lead and the Devils never looked back.

"I think it was defense and learning from our previous games to have to fight to figure out a way when we're down in the second half to get a lead and keep the lead. Just learning from previous games helped us a lot," said the senior Smith.

The Dukies were led by Chante Black's career high 22 points. Wanisha Smith added 16 in her last game in Cameron. She was honored along with Emily Waner at games end. Duke had a 49-5 record at home during Smiths four year stint.

It seems like just yesterday when I snapped a picture Smith, who was then a rising senior in high school. She visited Duke with Candace Parker of Tennessee during that recruiting weekend. Candace got Shelden, but we got Wanisha and she proved to be a solid player over the years.

Duke will now travel to North Carolina to close their season next Sunday. That game will be televised by Fox Sports Net at 5:50 p.m. Duke is now 10-3 in the league and 21-7 overall. Duke tied a season high with 24 free throws made on 30 attempts. he Blue Devils also forced 22 turnovers, making this the 20th time that has happened this season.

Duke Women Get Defensive - Defeat Wake Forest 71-36

Mark Watson — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:22:00 -0500

Wake Forest scored their first basket at the 12:43 mark of the first half. Duke played dominant defense throughout the game holding Wake Forest to 22.8% for the game which was a season low for Duke. Granted Wake is down three point guards from the start of the season due to injuries. Still Duke smothered the Deacs with 17 steals while forcing 24 turnovers.

Abby Waner scored her 1000th Career Point today!

It's a good thing the Blue Devils defense showed up today, for Duke shot just 17.6% from the three point stripe and 40.3% overall. Duke was led by Careem Gay's 15 points, while Cheek chipped in 13 and Abby Waner 12.

There was little doubt that Duke would secure it's eighteenth win of the season and boost it's conference record to 7-2. The Blue Devils will now go on the road to face Clemson on Wednesday before a rematch with Maryland next Sunday.

Abby Waner scored her 1000th career point at the 10:24 mark of the first half. Waner now has 1004 in her career at Duke University. Today's game was labeled "Think Pink" to show support for the fight against breast cancer. Duke held Wake to their season low of 36 points -- 18 in each half. Duke has now won 31 straight game versus the Deacons and moved to 9-2 at home this season .

Duke Women Bounce Back vs Boston College

Mark Watson — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:57:00 -0500

BOSTON (AP) - Chante Black scored 11 points and No. 11 Duke's conference-leading defense held Boston College without a field goal for over 11 minutes in the second half in a 51-41 win over the Eagles on Thursday night.

The Blue Devils (17-6, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) shot just 31 percent in the game, but held the Eagles to 34.9. Duke ...