GREENSBORO - For a second straight season, Duke coach Gail Goestenkors laced her hands around the rim of the Greensboro Coliseum-knuckles pressed white against the metal, bathed in the wash of stadium and camera lights-and flashed a smile broader than the outside skyline to the throng of media staring up, almost as if they expected her to plant a flag there.
For a second straight season, Goestenkors did a chin-up to the popping of cameras and shuffling of papers. And, for a second straight season, she came down to the ovation of an ACC champion.
It is tough to know what she was thinking, but the view could have hardly been more familiar. With a stunning defensive effort and just enough offense to get past a fatigued N.C. State team, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (28-3) edged the 21st-ranked Wolfpack (20-10) to claim the ACC championship and move to 8-0 in Greensboro.
"I'm excited, I'm happy, I'm proud," said Goestenkors, who coached Duke to the championship in the same building last year and the stunning 1999 upset of Tennessee. "I'm happy for the seniors. The underclassmen said they wanted to play for the seniors today... and they did."
Leading scorer Alana Beard stole the show on the ACC's biggest stage, cutting her way through the N.C. State defense for a game-high 18 points and making a non-factor out of the Wolfpack's Tynesha Lewis, a second-team All-ACC performer.
"Alana played a great game tonight," Goestenkors said. "After
The first time the Blue Devils won the ACC championship, it took them 24 years to do it. The second time took exactly 10 minutes.
Unlike last year's 79-76 thriller with North Carolina, settled in an offensive showdown between Missy West and tournament MVP Nikki Teasley, this year's championship was decided when Duke's high-octane offense ran N.C. State out of the building.
Duke scored on seven of its first eight possessions, while N.C. State committed six consecutive turnovers during a 25-9 Blue Devil run to open the game that gave Goestenkors' team all the breathing room it needed.
"They scored on their first [six] possessions, that put us in a hole," Lewis said. "They did a great job moving the ball up and down the court. By the time we settled down, we were catching up."
And when the ACC's top-ranked offense finally faltered against a stingy N.C. State defense, it was the Blue Devils' defensive work that kept the Wolfpack at bay.
Double and often triple-teamed inside, N.C. State was forced to rely on its outside game, which was non-existent without Lewis. The Wolfpack shot a season-low 25 percent from the floor and scored just 22 points in the paint. Duke's win avenged a surprise loss in Raleigh earlier in the season, a game in which the Wolfpack was able to push the Blue Devils around.
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"We knew going in because of the success we had in the paint, they'd try to take it away," said N.C. State's Kay Yow, who was coaching her first ACC championship game in 10 seasons. "Unfortunately, they played great defense and a lot of our open shots didn't go down. That made for a long night."
Sophomore Michele Matyasovsky, a non-factor in the first two meetings, scored a career-high 14 points and helped offset a sub-par night for tournament MVP Georgia Schweitzer, who finished with nine.
The Blue Devils' senior class also broke its top-seed curse with the win. In 1998 and 1999, Duke entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed only to lose in the semifinals each year. Duke was a two-seed behind Virginia during last season's championship run.
"I was thinking about that before the game," Schweitzer said. "We definitely wanted to break that."
The win puts the Blue Devils in strong contention for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, which after Georgia's SEC championship and stunning upset of Tennessee, seems to be anybody's call.
"I have to believe we are a No. 1," Goestenkors said. "With the ACC being as tough as it is and with our run through this tournament and the big out-of-conference wins, I have to believe we've earned it."
With a week before selection Sunday, the NCAA tournament committee has plenty of time to think about it. And Goestenkors has plenty of time to warm up her arms.
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