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Women's Basketball
vs Baylor
Sunday, March 23
College Park, Md.
7:00 p.m.
Duke University
78
vs
57
Murray State
Duke Advances To Second Round With 78-57 Win Over Murray State
3/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) ? The third-seeded Duke Blue Devils never trailed Sunday night and cruised past Murray State 78-57 to advance to the second round of the NCAA women's tournament.
Duke has been to the NCAA tournament 15 times, including 14 straight, without losing its opening game. The Blue Devils (24-9) can earn a berth in the round of 16 for the 11th consecutive season by defeating sixth-seeded Arizona State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Arizona State defeated 11th-seeded Temple 61-54 on Sunday evening.
This is the second time the Duke women's team has been seeded third. The last time it happened, the Blue Devils went to the 1999 title game before falling to Purdue.
Wanisha Smith scored 16 points and Chante Black had 14 for Duke, which finished with a 48-29 rebounding advantage. After allowing Murray State to cut a 15-point deficit to 37-32, the Blue Devils used a 17-3 run to make it 54-34 with 12:21 to go.
That ended any hope 14th-seeded Murray State (24-8) had of pulling off a huge upset in its first trip to the NCAA tournament. Ashley Hayes scored 24 for the Racers, champions of the Ohio Valley Conference.
If Duke was feeling any lingering effects of its 86-73 loss to North Carolina in the ACC title game, it certainly wasn't evident in the opening minutes of this one.
The Blue Devils threatened to run away early, scoring the game's first six points while Murray State missed its first six shots. It was 9-8 before Smith scored five points in a 15-1 run that lasted more than seven minutes.
The Racers were 3-for-21 from the field until Gerraca Matthews connected on a drive through the lane with 7:21 left in the half.
Duke limited the Racers to 9-for-35 shooting and built a 35-23 rebounding edge in taking a 35-23 halftime lead.
Players Mentioned
C
/ Women's Basketball
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