Duke 77 Georgia Tech 45
AJC
I didn't get to see this one, but from all reports there wasn't much to see. Duke held the
Jackets to 21% from the field in the first half, scored 14 points off
turnovers, and used their potent fast break to blow the Jackets out of the
Thrilladome. The first five minutes were close as Duke led only 9-6. A
15-1 run that featured 5 points from Alana Beard, 4 points from Brittany
Hunter and 4 points from Lindsey Harding gave Duke their working margin,
and they kept building from there. The Jackets turned the ball over 8
times in the first eleven minutes thanks to Duke's withering pressure.
Duke turned that 24-9 start into a 42-13 halftime lead. Beard scored 12
points in the half and led the charge against Tech's leading scorer,
Fallon Stokes.
The lead hovered at around thirty for the first ten minutes of the
second half before the last flurry by starters Beard and Currie. The
bench wound up playing 108 of 200 possible minutes; no starter played more
than 23 minutes and reserves Krapohl & Foley wound up playing 24. Beard
scored an efficient 17 points in 22 minutes. Hunter played 23 minutes and
is really rounding into shape now, dominating Tech with 14 points, 12
rebounds and 4 blocks. The Jackets are normally a fine rebounding club,
but Duke was +11 on them in this game. Harding had a good offensive
showing with 10 points on 4-4 shooting and forced top assist woman Alex
Stewart into 4 turnovers with just 2 assists. Stokes wound up having to
take 18 shots to get 16 points and was held to 3 rebounds.
Wynter Whitley played pretty well in her return to Atlanta, getting 5
rebounds and a fast break basket. This is the one reserve whom I can see
really increasing her minutes as she gets healthier and in game shape.
Duke won by a healthy margin despite shooting just 3-11 from three and
14-23 from the foul line. They'll need to do a bit better than that for
their next opponent: UNC. More on them in a later post.