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No. 4 Duke Advances In ACC Tournament With Win Over Florida State, 82-66
March 1, 2002
Box Score| Quotes| Notes
By AARON BEARD
Associated Press Writer
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Duke got an unexpected challenge Friday night as it began its bid for a third straight Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title.
Alana Beard had 23 points and Iciss Tillis had 21 as the fourth-ranked Blue Devils survived a scare from ninth-seeded Florida State for an 82-66 win - a game in which Duke never held a comfortable lead until the final minutes.
Top-seeded Duke won its 16th consecutive game to advance to Sunday's semifinals, where the Blue Devils will face the winner of Saturday's game between fourth-seeded Virginia and fifth-seeded Georgia Tech.
"I think we're obviously going to have to play much better basketball on both ends of the floor to be successful," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I'm not happy with the way we played, but I'm glad it was a close game because I think it helped prepare us for things we're going to see in the next game."
Duke (25-3) became only the second team in league history to go 16-0 in the regular season, but struggled to put away the Seminoles (13-15). After winning the regular-season games by an average of 27 points, Duke's largest lead didn't come until the final horn.
Seemingly every time the Blue Devils seemed poised to put the game out of reach, the Seminoles fought back.
"They're a scrappy team," Beard said. "They got after all the loose balls. They had nothing to lose. They knew we had everything to lose.
"It wasn't scary. It was just a game where we were really tested."
The Blue Devils led 57-50 with 9:43 to play, and increased the lead with eight unanswered points. Layups by Beard and Sheana Mosch pushed the lead to 65-50 with 6:43 to play.
The Seminoles rallied, pulling to 67-58 with 3:24 to play on a jumper by April Traylor. But they would get no closer as Duke padded its lead at the free-throw line in the final minutes.
Traylor had 14 points and Lakesha Springle had 12 for the Seminoles, who shot 41 percent.
The Seminoles outrebounded Duke 42-37, including 16-12 on the offensive glass. That allowed for 19 second-chance points, 15 coming in the first half.
Florida State took a 25-13 edge on the boards in the first half and had 12 offensive rebounds.
"The way we attacked the glass maybe put them on their heels a bit, so their offense wasn't coming at us so aggressively," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said.
Duke, which led the league in 3-point shooting at 41 percent, shot just 4-for-21 from behind the arc. The Blue Devils overcame that by hitting 26 of 34 free throws, compared to 10-for-15 for the Seminoles.
The Blue Devils took a 37-28 lead with 3:15 to play in the first half, but Florida State scored five unanswered points. Katelyn Vujas' putback with 20 seconds remaining cut the lead to 37-33.
Wynter Whitley hit two free throws with 2.9 seconds left to give Duke the 39-33 halftime edge.
Beard and Tillis had 10 points each as Duke shot 54 percent in the half.
