GREENSBORO - Throughout the ACC season, Duke prided itself on being a defensive-oriented team-the kind of squad that always made the necessary stops.
But last Sunday, in the overtime of an ACC Tournament final thriller, that defense simply wasn't up to the task.
After scoring seven straight points, which culminated in a Chante Black tip-in with one second left in regulation, the third-seeded Blue Devils came back down to earth, giving up 11 points in overtime to No. 1 Maryland in a 92-89 loss in Greensboro Coliseum. The Terrapins' 92 points were the most Duke (26-5) has surrendered this season.
"What we needed more than anything else was a few more stops," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "It was a close game and could have gone either way, but we had to... get a few more stops on the defensive end. We're a pretty good defensive team."
Over the weekend, before the last five minutes of the championship game, the Blue Devils were a very good defensive team.
In Friday night's victory over Virginia, Duke held the Cavaliers to only 53 points. In the Blue Devils' Saturday win over Florida State, they held the Seminoles to 18 points in the first half and 57 total.
But on Sunday, the Blue Devils watched helplessly as Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman went for 24 and 28 points, respectively. Coleman, the Tournament MVP, also hit the shot that put Maryland (28-4) up for good: a 3-pointer with 2:54 left in overtime.
The entire game was played at a frenetic pace, and, were it not for the superhuman performances from Coleman and Toliver, Duke's come-from-behind performance might have dominated the game's storyline.
The Blue Devils found themselves down 10 with 6:02 remaining in regulation. Back-to-back jumpers from Carrem Gay cut the lead to six, and, on the ensuing possession, Gay intercepted the ball from Toliver and found a wide-open Jasmine Thomas, who would finish with 16 points and five assists, for an easy layup to cut the deficit to four.
It would then be Thomas' turn to carry Duke's comeback. With 1:18 left, Thomas drove inside and hit a jumper to cut the Maryland lead back to four. Thirty seconds later, she would hit two clutch foul shots that cut it to two.
On the next series, Anjale Barrett missed a three with 10 seconds left that would have clinched the game for the Terrapins. Thomas grabbed the rebound, ran up the court and heaved up a desperation jumper. Black got the offensive board and tipped it in with one hand.
"I knew that [Jasmine] was going to attack it. She only had eight seconds [to score], and there was a possibility that it was going to come off, and it would probably come off weak side," said Black, who struggled to find her rhythm and finished with just 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting. "I just rose up to the challenge and prayed to God that that tip-in would go in."
At the end of the game, one overtime later, the Blue Devils did not get to celebrate under the mountains of confetti and balloons, but they know they were a part of something special: two quality wins that made a high NCAA Tournament seeding possible, and a game that will go down as one of the best in the conference record books.
"This was a great game and should go down in history," said Black. "We played hard but... it's just bad that it went the other way."
The Blue Devils receive their NCAA Tournament fate Monday.
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