CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Although the tipoff to Duke's 61-49 loss to Virginia was yesterday afternoon, the Blue Devils may have lost the game Thursday night.
Four days ago against North Carolina, forward Peppi Browne collapsed to the floor with an injury to her right knee. Cameron went silent, and all in attendance immediately thought one thing: torn ACL.
And while the results to Browne's MRI will not be available until later today, Duke's players were assuming the worst when they took the floor to face ACC co-leader Virginia yesterday.
The Blue Devils' bodies were certainly there, but their heads were back in Durham, with Browne and her damaged knee.
"We just weren't ready to play from the tipoff," Lauren Rice said. "We can't use Peppi as an excuse.... We just shot ourselves in the foot."
In the first five minutes of the game, Duke committed six turnovers while quickly falling behind 9-0. After a television timeout, Virginia extended its lead to 18-0 until mercifully, with 11:10 left in the first half, Rochelle Parent converted a layup and put the Blue Devils on the board.
"It's the worst we've looked in a long, long time, Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said, and by the time the half was finished, Duke's shooting percentage barely surpassed its number of turnovers, 18-15.
Nearly as soon as her press conference began, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan knew what she had seen. She saw a lifeless Duke team whose heads were somewhere else.
"I'm really sorry about Peppi Browne not being able to play today," Ryan said. "I think one of the reasons we got such a good start is they were a little out of sync and they weren't their normal well-oiled selves."
Calling Duke a little out of sync could be the understatement of the year, but while Browne's physical absence undoubtedly took away some of Duke's steam, Goestenkors said one missing player cannot influence a game that much.
"I think [missing Browne] is a nice excuse we're using now, but I don't think it's appropriate," Goestenkors said. "I don't really like to use excuses. I don't think Peppi makes that much of a difference that we can't score for the first 20 minutes."
Browne is probably Duke's most irreplaceable player, and if she is out for awhile, the Blue Devils will certainly experience growing pains as they try to figure out how to play without her.
Yesterday, Duke had little to no time to prepare for post-Peppi life, but that cannot excuse the sloppy play demonstrated in the first half.
The ghost of Browne's right knee did not bounce balls off of dribblers' feet, and it did not force passes to fly out of bounds. The Blue Devils just weren't in the game mentally when the whistle blew.
"I'm very disappointed in our effort in the first half," Goestenkors said. "We need to always fight and scrap for everything, and I didn't feel like we did that in the first half. We were very passive, and Virginia took advantage of it."
If the results of Browne's MRI force her to the sidelines for the remainder of the year, Duke will never be the same team this season. Browne is the Blue Devils' most versatile player and one of the nation's best post defenders.
And while Duke shouldn't be expected to reach the same level of success without Browne, its mentality should never change. That's what happened yesterday, when the Blue Devils decided for the first time all season they just didn't want to play basketball.
Goestenkors believes Duke's already learned its lesson.
"I know we'll learn from this, and we'll be a better team tomorrow than we are today," she said. "We've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster with Peppi going down, and our focus wasn't where it needed to be.
"Hopefully, a little extra time will help us feel more comfortable with one another out there."
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