Trailing their opponent by 11 points with 15 minutes left to play and on the verge of losing their second straight game against a nationally ranked opponent, the No. 6 Blue Devils (3-1) were in desperate need of a savior.
Fortunately for Duke, divine intervention came in the form of senior Wynter Whitley, whose seven-point run sparked a dramatic comeback, and the Blue Devils went on to win 66-58.
With her team trailing No. 23 Penn State 32-43, Whitley found herself with a wide open three-point shot at the top of the key and nailed it.
After Penn State (0-3) missed on the opposite end of the court, Duke jumped out to a fast break. Monique Currie pulled up at the right elbow for a jump shot, which clanged off the rim. The ball, however, landed right into the waiting arms of Whitley, who converted an easy lay-up to close the deficit to six.
After another missed Lady Lion jump shot, freshman Laura Kurz found a wide-open Whitley on the right side of the court. The senior nailed the 17-footer, sending the Cameron crowd into a frenzy.
The Blue Devils would never look back. Six minutes later, Whitley would score her 11th point to give Duke its first lead of the half, and the Blue Devils went on to cruise to victory.
"After Wynter hit that three, at that moment we started to come together and understand that it was going to take a team effort to win this game," junior Mistie Williams said. "It can't be a bunch of individuals out there--it has to be a team. After that moment it clicked. The energy started going, the crowd started getting into it, and it was hard not to get on fire after that."
Whitley, who also led her team with eight rebounds and four steals, almost did a double take upon realizing how unguarded she was on her three-point attempt.
"I had to think about it," the senior said. "I was open. I've been shooting after practice, so I felt comfortable with it, and I like the top of the key. No one was guarding me, so I shot it. It felt good."
The comeback came after a sloppy first half that saw several scoreless periods from both teams. Duke shot a paltry 1-for-7 from behind the arc in the stanza, and the Lady Lions out-rebounded the home team 21-9.
"It wasn't a happy halftime," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I don't think I've ever coached a team that's only had nine rebounds. That's a lack of aggression, lack of discipline and a lack of heart. There's no excuse for that."
The Blue Devils came out after the break with a strong man-to-man pressure defense and dared Penn State to beat them off the dribble. The gamble worked, and the Lady Lions turned the ball over seven times in the second half.
"They definitely came out and picked it up," Penn State guard Jess Storm said. "They were down 12, and I think when they [pressured the ball] we got a little bit rattled. I think we need to stay clam when other teams do that to us."
Duke also corrected its rebounding problem. In the second half the Blue Devils pulled down 21 rebounds and bested their opponents in second- chance points by a 15-to-1 margin.
"When you give away every statistic on the bottom [of the box score]... [you] don't deserve to win the game," Penn State head coach Rene Portland said. "We made bad decisions offensively. Turnovers were awful and at key times."
Penn State senior Tanisha Wright, who had scored 30 points in an earlier loss to No. 2 Texas, turned the ball over five times. Duke's strong defense in the middle of the court gave Wright very little room to maneuver.
The Blue Devils also dominated the Lady Lions underneath the basket on the offensive end and outscored Penn State 40-16 in the paint.
Williams led the team with 20 total points, 12 of which came when Duke was re-energized in the second half.
"We don't like losing," Williams said. "Coming off a loss, that should give you enough fire to get in gear and realize that we have to get better.... We don't accept losing, and once we saw them get ahead, it reminded me of Notre Dame getting ahead. And it's like 'No, this is not going to happen again.' We just kicked it into gear."
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