DURHAM, N.C. - On Sunday afternoon, the Virginia women's basketball team had all it could handle in facing No. 6 Duke down in Durham. Inspired by their fans, the Blue Devils got out to an early lead and extended it throughout most of the game to claim an 86-69 victory, with only a few minor rallies from the Cavaliers.
With the win, Duke (15-3, 7-0 ACC) continued its dominance in the conference and improved its home record to 7-1. Virginia (10-8, 3-4), coming off a 52-44 victory over Maryland on Friday, dropped to fifth place in the conference with the loss.
The dominant inside scoring and defense of Duke forward Iciss Tillis helped the Devils get out to a 23-10 with just over 11 minutes gone by in the first half. Virginia center Lynette O'Reggio then finally ended a scoring drought of more than three minutes. O'Reggio's basket led a 5-0 run to bring the Cavaliers to within eight, but that was as close as the game would get, as Duke answered the attack with a 12-4 run.
"I think we did a good job of moving on the court throughout the game," Tillis said. "We are a fast team and we used that to our advantage today."
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Throughout the game, Duke worked to contain Virginia freshman center Brandi Teamer, who leads the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game. The Devils succeeded in doing so in the first half, holding Teamer to six points, but she powered through with seven rebounds and played aggressively to finish with 20 points and 10 rebounds on the afternoon to record her fifth consecutive double-double.
After holding Virginia to 27.3 percent shooting in the first half to pull to a 40-26 lead at the break, the Blue Devils increased their advantage by as many as 22 points early in the second half.
Several baskets by Teamer and a three-pointer by guard Telisha Quarles triggered the Cavaliers to attempt another comeback, but the Blue Devils always had an answer for each Virginia run. With their team leading 63-46 with 8:30 to go in the game, Duke guards Alana Beard and Monique Currie took advantage of Teamer's brief absence of the floor to score six unanswered points.
"I thought every time [Virginia] started to make a little run, we came back and hit a basket," said Duke coach Gail Goestenkors. "I think it was probably a little discouraging to them that they could never make three or four baskets in a row without us hitting a shot."
In particular, the Cavaliers struggled tremendously in answering the Blue Devils' sharp three-point shooting. Duke shot a scorching 60 percent from beyond the arc in the first half and 50 percent from the game, led by guard Vicky Krapohl's 4-of-6 shooting. Virginia, meanwhile, connected on only 34.8 percent of its attempts, with guard Liz Sahin missing all four of her attempts to go 0-8 from the field for the game.
"We had a lot of wide-open shots that we did not hit," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "Now if Liz Sahin comes in and hits all those shots that she took, it's a different basketball game"
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