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Friday, February 1
Durham, N.C.
7:00 p.m.
Duke University
85
vs
50
Virginia Tech
No. 9 Duke Topples Virginia Tech, 85-50
2/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) ? Now that Virginia Tech's out of the way, and No. 9 Duke can look forward to its biggest rival.
The Blue Devils used great second-half shooting to rout Virginia Tech 85-50 on Friday night. Next up, a home game against rival North Carolina on Monday.
Wanisha Smith and Joy Cheek scored 14 points apiece to lead Duke, which shot a season-high 59.5 percent in the second half to put away the Hokies (13-9, 0-7 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Chante Black added 11 points and Krystal Thomas contributed 10 for the Blue Devils, who got their first win since losing to No. 2 Tennessee 67-64 on Monday.
All 12 Blue Devils (16-5, 5-1) scored, a first this season. Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said the offensive firepower was due to strong efforts from every player.
"Coach 'P' hit it when she said it was a total team effort," said junior guard Abby Waner, who had seven points, five assists and no turnovers. "When you have so many different threats and so many ways to score ... it's just really tough to defend."
Although the Blue Devils finished strong, their offense struggled in the first half. Duke got the majority of its points in the paint to take a 29-22 halftime lead and closed the half without scoring a basket for the last 6:08.
But McCallie didn't harp on that span, and she didn't need to. Duke opened the second half with a 13-6 run as its shooters warmed up. Smith and Waner hit 3-pointers to help Duke extend its lead to 45-30 with 15:07 left.
From there, the Blue Devils romped and gave their bench players plenty of playing time.
For the Hokies, the loss was yet another frustrating outcome. Andrea Barbour scored 15 points and Brittany Cook had 14 to lead Virgina Tech, but turnovers and poor rebounding sunk the team's chances.
Virginia Tech turned the ball over 21 times, leading to 25 Duke points. The Blue Devils outrebounded the Hokies 50-35.
"In the second half, I thought we got just completely away from our game plan," Hokies coach Beth Dunkenberger said. "We didn't guard correctly. We didn't take care of the ball on offense. We has some bad turnovers which in turn led to some Duke transition opportunities, and things went worse from there."
The Hokies' Shani Grey left the game with more than 14 minutes left after colliding with Waner and hurting her right knee. Dunkenberger said she didn't know much but thought it was a knee-on-knee collision. Grey has had surgery on that knee and couldn't put much weight on it. She did not return.
With the Hokies dispatched, the Blue Devils can spend the next three days worrying about North Carolina, the highest scoring team in the nation. This is McCallie's first game in the storied rivalry, and she's looking forward to it.
The Tar Heels are also one of the nation's top rebounding squads, and the Blue Devils will hope to have the same rebounding success as they had Friday night against the Hokies.
"It's going to be a board game without question," McCallie said. "It's a very physical, athletic game. A lot of shots are going to go up, that's for sure. It's just who is going to get those second and third shot opportunities."
Against Virginia Tech, Duke scored 17 second-chance points.
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