Stumble It!
ESPN Camera crews were in place while Rebbecca Lobo could be seen going over her pre game notes. The press room was filled to maximum and the Vol's even had their own TV crew present. In fact, several writers who normally only cover the men's games suddenly appeared. The reason for all the activity? It was 23 minutes before tip off of the Tennessee at Duke Women's game.
The Orange Nation poured into and around Cameron, some trying to score last minute tickets to the sold out event. Outside, scalpers were asking 75.00 a piece for prime tickets This would be another game in the outstanding series where Duke held a slim 5-4 edge coming into the game.
The Vols were set to avenge a four point loss to the Blue Devils in last season game. Both teams were feeling each other out early. Duke came out playing tenacious defense and controlled much of the first half, but Tennessee closed hard and they went into the locker rooms with the score deadlocked at 33 apiece. The Devils held All American Candace Parker to 6 first half points, but after the break that changed.
Parker came alive in the second half and ended the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds. But the real thorn in the Blue Devils side was freshman sharpshooter Angie Bjorklund who nailed three key three pointers on her way to 13 points. Add to that the most telling statistic of the game which is that the Vols had 22 second chance points to zero for Duke.
Despite that glaring stat, Dukes defense helprd them hold their opponent to 40% from the field. In fact, Tennessee turned the ball over 23 times which led to 29 points for Duke, yet the still managed to pull out the win. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said, "Great teams find a way to win" when asked of the turnovers.
Duke was led by Chante Black who tallied 13 points as did superb freshman Jasmine Thomas. The game was close the whole way despite just five lead changes. The loss ended Dukes 24 game homecourt winning streak and ties the series at 5-5. The game was the ninth sell out in women's basketball history.
Abby Waner hurled up a desperation 65 foot shot which would had tied the game at the buzzer but it rimmed out. Abby moved to fourth on the all time three point shots, having made a key three to tie the game.
"I thought we did pretty well up until the end. I thought we should have come out a little bit more aggressive," said Chante Black. You could certainly point to Tennessee scoring the first seven points as a culprit, or the lack of rebounding on the Devils part. Either way, Duke seems to be getting better with the tough lessons learned and they played tough against the number two team in the country all night long.