Tomko: Women?s Hoop Weekend Recap

GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Before the Blue Devils stepped onto the court Friday night for their first of three games in the ACC Tournament, Lauren Rice, the video coordinator for the women's team and former Duke player during the school's first ACC Championship in 2000, opened a very interesting fortune cookie.

Rice broke open the cookie before the tip of the Virginia game with the small piece of paper inside reading, ?You will soon be awarded in public'.

Rice's thoughts drifted immediately to the possibility of this year's squad coming away with the school's sixth ACC title, and after the play of the Blue Devils in their wins over the Virginia Cavaliers and the Florida State Seminoles, thoughts of an ACC title seemed warranted.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. In the finals against the Maryland Terrapins the Blue Devils would fall in overtime 92-89 after battling and scraping to tie the game on Chante Black's one-handed tip-in (see top plays link) off a Jasmine Thomas miss with seconds left to send the game into overtime.

“I just knew that Jas [Thomas] was going to attack it,” Black said postgame. “She only had 8 seconds and there was a possibility that it would come off. It would come off weak side and I just rose up to the challenge and prayed to God that that tip-in would go in.”

Black had to sit for the final 15:53 of the first half because the senior center was called for two quick fouls. She would finish with 11 points, all coming in the second half with none bigger than game tying tip in.

But looking back on the note from the fortune cookie, maybe the award is still to come. Soon is a relative term and could mean in the coming weeks the Blue Devils could be leaving a gym floor with an even bigger award, one that has been their primary goal all season.

The loss in the ACC title game no doubt hurt, but the Blue Devils have no reason to be down following one of the most compelling and well played games ever in the ACC Tournament.

“What an incredible basketball game,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I think it has to go down as one of the greatest tournament games in the history of the ACC women's tournament. The excitement and the plays that were made on both sides of the ball, I'm very, very proud of our team. I'm very proud of our fight.”

“Like coach said, this is a great game,” Black said. “It should go down in history. We really did play hard. It's just bad that it went the other way.”

Coming into Sunday's final the Blue Devils arguably looked and played better on the basketball court than at any other point this season. The quarterfinal game against Virginia was never close as Duke would build a 25 point lead in the first half cruising to a 76-53 win.

Abby Waner led the way with 16 points connecting on four 3s, while both Black and Joy Cheek would chip in 12 points each.

In their semifinal win against Florida State, the Blue Devils got revenge from their regular season overtime loss to the Seminoles taking down the No. 2 seed 75-57.

Duke looked as good if not better in the first half of Saturday's game as they did Friday night suffocating the Seminoles with high pressure defense and an efficient and balanced offensive attack scoring from both the perimeter and the paint.

Thomas scored a team high 14 points and Carrem Gay scored 13 while corralling nine rebounds.

Once again the Blue Devils put forth another superb effort on Sunday in the Championship game against Maryland. The two schools split during the regular season with each school winning on their own home floor.

Duke trailed by as many as 10 points with just under 10 minutes remaining in regulation needing practically every second that remained on the clock to tie the game and force overtime.

Overtime though did not go in Duke's favor as the Terrapins built up a three point lead with 1:20 remaining that Duke couldn't recover from.

“It could have gone either way, but we had to make that happen by getting a few more stops on the defensive end,” McCallie said. “And that's the thing. We are a pretty good defensive team. That's the thing that will really sting for us when we watch it on the film.”

Gay put together the most complete performance of the game for the Blue Devils, stepping up her play with the absence of Black in the first half to the tune of 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 10 rebounds.

“I just think it's a good energy going through the team,” Gay said. “I think everybody is pretty confident about where we are right now. I think we are trying to play off each other.”

The loss is just another one of the many different challenges the Blue Devils have faced this season, and with just under two weeks until the NCAA Tournament Duke now must wait to see where they will be seeded in NCAA's a week from today.

“We have had had so many different experience this year, and also know that if we play together, and play off each other, there is nothing that we can't do,” McCallie said. “We can do anything. It's a fascinating thing. March is a terrific time of year. You certainly cannot take anything for granted.”