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No. 3 Duke Dominates Ball St., 81-31
12/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2004
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By MICHAEL MAROT MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Duke coach Gail Goestenkors thought her team might be distracted Monday.
Not a chance.
Mistie Williams finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds and the third-ranked Blue Devils closed the first half on an amazing 35-1 run as they overpowered Ball State 81-31.
"I was a little worried because they were all talking about going home for Christmas and their flights home," Goestenkors said. "But we stayed focused."
Duke's ninth straight win again came in impressive fashion.
The Blue Devils nearly doubled their average victory margin during the streak (26.8), outrebounded Ball State 54-40, and, oh yes, played suffocating defense.
For a school-record eighth time this season, Duke (11-1) held an opponent to less than 30-percent shooting. Ball State (3-6) finished at 19.2 percent.
The Blue Devils created 25 turnovers, forced poor shots all night and set an ACC record with 16 blocks.
It was embarrassing for Ball State, which lost its sixth game in seven tries and was facing the highest-ranked opponent to visit Worthen Arena since it opened in January 1992.
"The fact is we didn't come ready to play," Kate Endress said. "I'm personally embarrassed by my performance."
Endress, the Cardinals' top scorer at 16.4, was shut out on 0-of-8 shooting. No Ball State players scored in double figures, and Tina Bolte had the best performance - 8 points and four assists.
But there was no way to hide the mismatches.
Duke had more speed, more size, more talent, more depth and seemed the combination was overwhelming.
How bad was it?
Consider Duke's 31-0 run during a nearly-15-minute stretch.
Or the 17-minute stretch when Ball State didn't make one basket.
Or the 45-7 halftime score, which was the second-lowest point total Duke had ever allowed in a half. Only Catawba's six points on Jan. 10, 1979 was worse.
And Ball State's 31 points, which included a 13-point flurry in the game's final seven minutes, tied a Cardinals record for fewest points in a game. They also had 31 on Jan. 13, 1993 against Ohio.
"There's no way we can simulate what they do in practice," Ball State coach Tracy Roller said. "They make you do things you don't usually do. They're just so big, so long, so lanky, so athletic. I'm disappointed we didn't match their challenge."
While Roller expected more from her team, Duke never allowed the Cardinals to stay close.
After Becca Bajorek hit a 17-footer to make it 10-6 with 15:21 left in the first half, Duke ran off 10 straight points before Kelsey Corbin hit 1-of-2 free throws with 12:50 to go.
The Blue Devils responded with 31 straight points, a stretch that didn't end until Corbin's basket with 17:56 left in the game.
"We wanted to work on traps and rotations, and offensively we were trying to get better at getting the ball into our post players," Goestenkors said.
It was almost picture perfect.
Duke outscored Ball State 46-6 in the paint, 18-5 on second-chance points and 35-12 off the bench. Defensively, Alison Bales had a career-high eight blocks, and the Blue Devils had 17 steals.
Goestenkors couldn't have asked for anything more - even in practice.
"Being focused is one of the things we pride ourselves on," Bales said. "We were focused in the Purdue game and we were focused tonight."
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