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Women's Basketball
vs LSU
Blue Devils Bury Jacksonville State
12/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2004
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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Third-ranked Duke used Jacksonville State for what amount to a practice session.
"This game enabled us to work on some different things defensively. It was good," coach Gail Goestenkors said after the Blue Devils (7-1) cruised to a 99-36 victory Wednesday night.
Strangely, the underdog was lookling beyond Duke.
When Jacksonville State (1-4) visited Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time Wednesday night, the Gamecocks hadn't faced a top-25 team since then-No. 12 Auburn walloped them 93-54 in November 1999.
JSU meets Auburn again Jan. 2 and coach Dave Dagostino had to admit the Tigers were already on his mind.
"How successful we were here tonight? We'll have to find that out Jan. 2," he said. "We'll see how much we picked up from this game."
Collisions between the top 25 and mid-majors usually end up as train wrecks for the underdogs, Dagostino said. This was no exception.
Coaching in her 400th game, Goestenkors improved to 311-89 in her 13th year at Duke. The Blue Devils won their seventh straight by limiting JSU to 14-for-55 shooting (25.5 percent) and forcing 31 Gamecock turnovers.
"They went with a bigger lineup to try to counteract our size advantage, and I think that lost them some ball-handling," Goestenkors said. "Those turnovers hurt them. It's tough when you play a team that's better than you are when you can't take care of the basketball and don't have opportunities to score."
Duke scored 49 points off turnovers.
"They're very strong and physical," Dagostino said. "I don't know if there's any way to duplicate it (in practice) other than stepping into the lion's den and facing it."
Dagostino figured getting a thrashing by Duke did pay some dividends.
"We have 2{ weeks to get ready to face another top-25 team," he said. "Our main goal is to win our conference, and if we do, we'll have to face a third top-25 team in the first round of the NCAA tournament. This should help us."
Duke (9-1) gave JSU plenty to think about until then.
Freshman Wanisha Smith scored a career-high 22 points to lead six players in double figures.
Monique Currie added 17 points and Mistie Williams 11. Among the reserves, Chante Black had 16 points, Laura Kurz 13 and Wynter Whitely 10. Duke's bench outscored the reserves for the Gamecocks 39-21.
Alison Bales grabbed 10 rebounds and Williams nine as the Blue Devils dominated the boards 51-36.
Shooting 38-for-77, Duke had more field goals than the Gamecocks had points.
Reserve Laniece Thomas scored seven points to lead Jacksonville State (1-4), which got no more than four from any of its starters.
Smith had 15 points in the first half, personally outscoring Jacksonville State as Duke led 44-14 at the break.
The Blue Devils scored the last 11 points of the first half and first nine of the second. They held the Gamecocks to a single basket for 10:25 of the first half and scoreless for 6:57 of that stretch.
Duke scored on 14 of its first 16 possessions of the second half, and opened a 66-17 lead with 14:48 to play. The lead grew to as much as 91-28 with 3:51 left.
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