Women's Basketball Defeats Georgetown, 68-53.

Box Score

Blue Devils equal school's best-ever start at 12-1, complete 1999 year with 32-4 overall record.

DURHAM, N.C. (December 30) -- No. 15 Duke battled back from a nine point first half deficit to defeat Georgetown 68-53 Thursday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The victory improves Duke to 12-1 on the season while Georgetown drops to 7-4 overall. Duke's 12-1 start equals the best start in school history.

Just happy to end the year right, said Duke head coach Gail Goestenkors. We knew that this was going to be a very good team. We watched a lot of videotape on them and feel like they are very, very talented. Very physical. I thought in the first half they were much more physical they we were. They got all the lose balls. It was a battle.

Georgia Schweitzer paced Duke with 18 points, Peppi Browne finished with 17 and Lauren Rice added 13 points and eight rebounds. Rochelle Parent grabbed nine rebounds. After a sluggish first half, Peppi Browne's layup one second before halftime gave Duke a 24-23 halftime lead.

Our offensive execution in the first half was non-existent, said Goestenkors. We played Georgetown's tempo. We allowed them to dictate tempo and great teams don't do that, they play at their own tempo.

The Blue Devils kept that lead and never looked back. Duke used an 11-0 run to take a 37-25 second half lead with14:57 to go in the game. Rice's three-pointer started the rally followed by a Browne free throw, Browne jumper, a Rice layup and a three-pointer from Schweitzer.

Duke extended its lead to 24 points, 60-36, midway through the second half on a Browne layup. Duke hit 21 of 26 free throws including 17-21 in the second half for the victory.

Georgetown took command early in the game as it built a 17-8 lead on a seven point run. After a timeout, the Blue Devils went on a run of their own and kept the game close up until halftime. Georgetown's Katie Smrcka-Duffy paced the Hoyas with 14 points and eight

rebounds while Nok Duany chipped in 12 points. With the win, Duke concludes the 1999 year with a 32-4 overall record.

Duke will play at Maryland on Monday at 7:30 pm.