Feb. 13, 2003
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – After Duke’s first loss of the season against Connecticut earlier this month, coach Gail Goestenkors decided her team needed to improve its defense.
Duke’s renewed focus was displayed Thursday night when the No. 2 Blue Devils rolled to an 82-43 win over Georgia Tech.
Duke (23-1, 11-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) has won three straight games since the loss on Feb. 1, holding each opponent under 50 points.
Georgia Tech (15-8, 4-7) made just 29 percent of its field-goal attempts, while Duke hit 54 percent.
“I feel like we are starting to hit our stride, which is good,” Goestenkors said. “I thought we set the tone with our defense tonight. After the Connecticut game, we knew that we had to make defense a focal point. We’ve spent a lot of time on our defense in practice.”
That defense held Georgia Tech’s leading scorer, Sonja Mallory, to just eight points. Fallon Stokes led the Yellow Jackets with 11 points and seven rebounds, and Megan Isom added 10 points.
Alana Beard led Duke with 23 points and Iciss Tillis had 14 points, eight rebounds and six steals as the Blue Devils earned their 35th straight league win.
“After the Connecticut game, we went back to basics,” said Vicki Krapohl, who added nine points. “We worked on things like getting around screens. More than anything, we all trust each other more on defense now, and that’s important. We didn’t have that earlier in the season.”
Duke went on a 12-0 run in the first half and stretched its lead to 25-8 with 10:12 remaining before the break.
After leading 39-21 at halftime, the Blue Devils opened the second half with a 13-4 scoring spurt that gave them a 52-25 lead with 14:07 remaining.
Duke forced 19 turnovers, turning them into 24 points and outscored Georgia Tech in the paint 34-18.
