Down by 13 points at halftime, the Blue Devils’ faced their largest halftime deficit of the season.
But second-seeded Duke (32-2) rallied back, making stops and hitting shots to avoid an embarrassing upset by seventh-seeded Oklahoma State (22-11) 68-59 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. With the win, the Blue Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 to face Nebraska.
“For us to come in here, we almost had to play a perfect game to win. I thought we played pretty close to perfect in the first half,” Cowgirl head coach Jim Littell said. “This is one of the toughest places as far as the No. 2 seeds go, and we went toe-to-toe for about 35 minutes tonight.”
The Blue Devils looked lethargic at the start, turning the ball over on their first three trips down the floor. Duke turned the ball over 10 times during the half, with sophomore Elizabeth Williams committing five of them.
Williams, though, said her opponents did not do anything out of the ordinary to stop her.
“I was way too careless with the ball,” she said.
The Cowgirls converted these extra possessions into easy baskets, hitting 46.7 percent of their shots and recording 10 points off turnovers in the period. The Blue Devils, on the other hand, shot only 30.0 percent in the half, going into the locker room down 34-21.
“It was just a weird first half,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “As a coach, there are things you are very upset about—layups, for example, transition defense. But I elected to not go there. I dropped the first half and [said], ‘This is what it is. This is what we’re going to do.’”
Duke made much-needed adjustments in the second half, finally beginning to play like the favorites. McCallie said her team just started to have fun and play as a team.
“We pressed a little and think about things too much sometimes, and forget to play together, which occurred a bit in the first half,” McCallie said. “The second half was a different story. Everybody was on the same page, pulling the same direction. It was just a fascinating thing to observe, to watch, to be a part of.”
After Oklahoma State scored the first two points of the second half to extend the lead to 15—the largest deficit Duke faced all season at Cameron Indoor Stadium—the Blue Devils went on a 12-0 run, bringing the game within three.
“I don’t think it is necessarily anything we did wrong, we just ran out of gas tonight,” Littell said. “We have been playing basically five people for the last two-and-a-half months. Playing a caliber team like Duke, depth becomes an issue, and that was a big issue tonight.”
Junior Chloe Wells, who missed last season’s tournament due to suspension, relished her “opportunity of a lifetime” to play in this tournament and was a thorn in the Cowgirls’ offensive flow.
At one point, Wells was involved in 11 consecutive points for the Blue Devils and finished the night with 13 points, two assists and a steal.
“Chloe [had] a game-changing performance in many ways,” McCallie said. “Chloe was the engine to making it go.”
The Blue Devils turned the tables in the second half, forcing the Cowgirls into 16 turnovers. Duke capitalized on their mistakes, scoring 17 points off the extra possessions.
“Our turnovers really led to their momentum,” Cowgirl guard Tiffany Bias said. “We weren’t taking care of the ball. That 1-2-2 press that they put on us kind of riled us a little bit, and we didn’t adjust to it well.”
Duke took the lead off a Tricia Liston 3-pointer, capping a personal 6-0 run. The Blue Devils did not let the game go again, with Williams and junior Haley Peters both hitting key shots to maintain the lead.
Perfect free throw shooting as the game drew to a close iced the win, giving Duke a chance to advance to Norfolk.
“It’s just a fun time of year,” McCallie said. “It’s about just playing together and enjoying that opportunity to play together for as long as we possibly can.”
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