It's no mistake: Duke bombs Temple by 78, 112-34

Owls tend to be nocturnal-they sleep during the day. Perhaps Temple's women's basketball players were emulating the habits of their mascot two months ago, thus missing the memo stating that Halloween would be held Oct. 31 again this year. That would explain why the Owls waited until Saturday afternoon to have their own day of horror inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. In a contest that got out of hand faster than an early season Kansas State football game, No. 16 Duke (7-4) dominated all phases of the game against visiting Temple (4-4) en route to a 112-34 victory-the most lopsided in the history of Duke's program. "Everybody, I thought, played well," said coach Gail Goestenkors in an obvious understatement. "This is one of the best games we've played both offensively and defensively." Riding some quick early buckets from Hilary Howard, Rochelle Parent and Peppi Browne, the Blue Devils embarked on a 14-0 run before the 1,122 in attendance even had time to settle in their seats. By the time the game was 12 minutes old, the margin was a jaw-dropping 40-3. After a three-pointer by Temple's Nicole Chaszar drew mock applause from the crowd, Duke outscored its opposition 24-7 over the remainder of the half to take a 52-point cushion into the locker room. For the half, the Owls shot just 13.8 percent from the floor and had more than triple the number of turnovers (15) as made field goals (four). In one particularly futile stretch, Temple went over 10 minutes-or a quarter of the game-without a basket while committing seven turnovers. That left Goestenkors without much to talk about during the break. "We felt really good at halftime," she said. "Sometimes when that happens, at the end of the game we don't feel any good any more because we've lost our focus.... Our goal was to feel good at the end of the game." Those good feelings were ensured when the Blue Devils came out to start the second stanza with the last thing the Owls needed: a 23-0 run to make the score 87-12. With the bench already pretty much cleared due to Duke dressing only nine healthy players, the only question left was how ugly the game would get before it ended. Howard credited her coach for keeping the team together in the almost surreal atmosphere of the second half. "Coach G helps us [keep our focus]," she said after her 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting left her just one point shy of a career high. "We're just trying to get better every game. It'll be a waste of time if we're out there and we're just going through the motions." An examination of the stat sheet was not for the weak of heart. Temple's Dawn Ingram led her team with eight points, while eight Blue Devils had at least that many and four turned in season highs. Parent tied a career-high with nine rebounds as Duke crushed Temple on the boards, 52-31. And Krista Gingrich handed out a career-high 10 assists while the Owls as a team chalked up only four. As a team, the Blue Devils shot 66.7 percent, held their opponents to 20 percent and created the kind of carnage that Cameron won't witness again for quite some time. Or will it? Next Saturday's opponent, UNC-Asheville, has already dropped a 93-25 decision to 3-4 N.C. State. That apparent mismatch waiting to happen is Duke's last game before heading out to California for the second time this season and a date with 10th-ranked UCLA. Still, Goestenkors isn't entertaining any thoughts of complacency, even after a game that was decided in less than three minutes. "We need to continue to work on ourselves and get better," she said. "This game's going into finals and Asheville's coming out of finals. So just getting back to the basics-improving on defense, improving our rebounding and our execution on offense."