Black Leads No. 4 Duke Past Virginia Tech, 57-52

Friday, January 16

Blacksburg, Va.

6:30 p.m.

Duke University

Virginia Tech

Black Leads No. 4 Duke Past Virginia Tech, 57-52

1/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: Associated Press

BLACKSBURG, Va. ? Hoping to contend for a national championship, No. 4 Duke got exactly what it needed in a close victory at Virginia Tech.

The Blue Devils led by 16 points and appeared ready to pull away, but then saw the Hokies charge back, closing to within three in the final minutes, before Duke held on for a 57-52 victory. It was its 13th in a row ? and one it is sure to hear plenty about going forward.

"You have to finish strong when it's the time to finish," Blue Devils coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "When we were up 16, it was the time to finish that game."

Instead, uncharacteristic sloppiness with the ball allowed the Hokies to hang around despite shooting just 31 percent. Duke had 16 turnovers in the first half and 28 overall.

"We'll pull together and we'll get better at that for the next game," said Chante Black, Duke's only double-figure scorer with 13. She also had 14 rebounds and two blocks.

McCallie wasn't as eager ? and won't be ? to put the performance in the past.

"You have to give credit to some defense and trapping, but with that said, there's just too many rushed, ridiculous turnovers for us," she said. "It's just something that's unacceptable. ... I tend to believe it was a lot of us in terms of not being mentally focused and really trying to do too much on some passes, trying to get too much at certain times."

At the finish, though, Duke (15-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) did what it needed to do, getting two critical free throws from Karima Christmas with 22.7 seconds left to hang on.

"What I like about this team is they're going to appreciate the victory, but this is going to hit them in the gut, too, and that's the recipe for a very good team," McCallie said.

The Hokies (8-8, 0-3) trailed 48-32 with 9 minutes left before making a furious comeback. A 9-0 run capped by Nikki Davis' 3-pointer with 1:03 to play pulled them to 53-50.

That's when Christmas converted both ends of a one-and-on to push the lead back to five, and when Lindsay Biggs' 3-point try from the top of the key missed, Duke had survived.

For the Hokies, coming so close was frustrating, especially since its didn't seem to coach Beth Dunkenberger that it was Duke's vaunted defense that did them in, but unlucky shooting.

The Hokies made six of their first eight shots, then hit only 5 of their next 42 to go 16 points down. The second half began with them missing 16 of their first 17 field goal tries.

"It wasn't so much that their offense was that good. It was that we couldn't hit any shots," Dunkenberger said. "We had some great looks at it and you could hear a collective (sigh) from the crowd every time we missed because they were shots that normally go in."

Black remained the only player in the ACC to score in double figures in each of her team's games this season, while Christmas added nine points and Joy Cheek scored eight.

Davis led Virginia Tech with a career-high 16 and Biggs had 14, but the pair was a combined 11-for-28 from the field. Hokies scoring leader Utahya Drye missed her first 10 shots and finished 2-for-13 from the field with four points, more than 10 below her average.

"Utahya was taking shots that she hits all the time," Dunkenberger said.

The Blue Devils played without floor leader Abby Waner, who wasn't feeling well.

Duke went 6? minutes without a point after Bridgette Mitchell's two free throws tied it at 9, but when Christmas' basket broke the drought with 9:38 to play before halftime, the Blue Devils trailed just 16-11. The game stayed close the rest of the half until Duke used a 10-2 run fueled by 3-pointers by Mitchell and Shay Selby to lead 31-26 at the intermission.