Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The match-up of #1 and #2 ended up not being a contest as #2 Duke outplayed #1 Tennessee in a 75-53 romp.

Led by Lindsey Harding's 15 points and 8 steals, Duke used a balanced attack and excellent defense to dismantle the Lady Vols. As Pat Summitt explained, "Duke wanted it more, and their defense was the difference."

The start of the game looked like a close contest. With both teams shooting well, but turning the ball over the score was tied at 14 at the 11 minute mark. Duke then went on a 11-2 run before Tennessee responded with a 5-0 run to close the gap to 23-21. Another 7-2 run by the Blue Devils brought the halftime score to 30-23.

After trading baskets to start the second half, Duke went on a quick 11-4 run courtesy of a Monique Currie 3-pointer and a pair of Mistie Williams layups. The Blue Devils never allowed the Lady Vols to gain any momentum and eventually extended the lead to 27 points after a 13-0 run gave Duke a 73-46 lead.

For Tennessee, Candace Parker had 17 points and five assists, but she also had seven turnovers and did not get much help from her teammates. Leading scorer Shanna Zolman, had zero points, shooting 0-for-7 from the floor. Summitt called Zolman a non-factor. "The disappointing thing is when she wasn’t scoring, she wasn’t doing other things. Obviously, that hurt us."

Tennesssee will look to bounce back later this week against SEC foes Kentucky and Alabama.

Duke will not have much time to savor this as they go back to ACC action and face Clemson on Thursday before another showdown on Sunday with #3 North Carolina.

"It was a great game, but it's still just a game," Gail Goestenkors said. It was an opportunity to test ourselves, to find out how good we were in this particular situation on this particular day." Coach G would admit, "Today, we were pretty good."