North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Duke
Wolfpack Falls to No. 2 Duke
1/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. - NC State women's basketball (11-6, 2-3) fell 77-57 at No. 2 Duke (18-0, 6-0) on Thursday, Jan. 19. Despite a solid run after the halftime break, the Wolfpack could not overcome a 12-point deficit entering the second half. Duke's Monique Currie led all scorers with 20 points, while the Wolfpack's Billie McDowell finished with 14 and Gillian Goring added 12 points and seven rebounds. NC State hosts an out-of-conference game against Dartmouth on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. The game will mark the 1000th career game for NC State head coach Kay Yow.
NC State scored first and held it close for the majority of the first half. Sophomore Khadijah Whittington hit a turnaround jumper in the first minute to get the Pack on the scoreboard. But Duke's Monique Currie hit the Blue Devils' next three field goals, all before NC State scored its second of the game. Using its motion offense NC State held tight until Duke took its largest lead at 16, 39-23 with just over a minute to play. The Wolfpack's Billie McDowell posted 11 points to lead all scorers and Gillian Goring accounted for eight points to cut the Duke lead to nine with 5:28 remaining. The Blue Devils took a 12-point lead into the break after Abby Waner hit her second three-pointer of the half. Duke forced 11 Wolfpack turnovers and used those for 17 points to stay on top, including two fast break layups late in the half. Goring stepped up her game and played for 11 minutes in the half. In part due to both Whittington and Tiffany Stansbury forced to sit on the sidelines after being tagged with two fouls early in the half. Her solid play kept her in the game. Goring went 4-for-7, had six rebounds and one block to go with her eight points. Duke's Monique Currie was also benched with two fouls, but had nine points already upon her exit. The score stood at 39-27 at the break with neither team shooting very well. Duke narrowly led in that category with 40.6 percent shooting, while the Pack hit 36.4 percent of its shots.
The Wolfpack offense erupted for a 10-4 run to start the second half and cut the Duke lead in half. A couple of three-pointers from Marquetta Dickens and McDowell, along with four points from Stansbury, brought the Pack within six, 43-37 at the first media timeout. Dickens followed the timeout with two free throws to get the Pack within four, the closest since a five-point lead by Duke back in the third minute. The Blue Devils had went 9-of-10 from the free throw line in the first half, but was just 3-for-6 in the early going of the second. The Wolfpack interior of Whittington and Stansbury held Duke center Alison Bales without a field goal for the entire first half, but she had six points in her first 10 minutes of the second half and helped Duke regain a strong hold on its lead, 61-46 with 9:39 left. NC State's Ashley Key took a charge on Wanisha Smith to get the Wolfpack into bonus 20 seconds later. Duke took its largest lead of 17 after a reverse layup from Currie with just under seven minutes left in the half to push the score to 65-48. The runner sparked an 8-0 run by the Blue Devils over the next two minutes and led to a 23-point lead at the final media timeout, 73-50.
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