'Us against the world'

Duke's 22-game winning ends with Final Four loss

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The Duke Blue Devils came up short.

Duke, down to eight players after two women left the team, saw its 22-game winning streak end Friday night with an 86-71 loss to Oklahoma in the national semifinals.

"I think what saddens me the most is that we wanted to prove we could do it with eight," forward Iciss Tillis said. "It was like us against the world."

Duke went 16-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and won the league tournament for an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. The Blue Devils finished 31-4, the best record in school history.

Coach Gail Goestenkors pointed to the future after the game.

"I think we play well together, but we're relying on freshmen and sophomores," she said. "No team in the country is closer."

After Oklahoma's Caton Hill made a pair of free throws for a 62-50 lead with 10:10 to go, Duke went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to two points.

Duke senior Krista Gingrich hit a 3-pointer, then Alana Beard converted a three-point play after only her second shot in the second half. Tillis scored and Michele Matyasovsky had two baskets, the last on a nice pass from Beard in the paint, that cut it to 64-62 with 7:49 remaining.

Oklahoma's only points during the run was a pair of free throws by Stacey Dales.

"When we made our run, we stepped up defensively. We started getting stops and executing better offensively," Gingrich said.

But Oklahoma responded with a basket that made it more apparent Duke's season was about to end.

Hill hit a 3 -- her first and only in the game -- and the Blue Devils couldn't rally again.

"You could feel the momentum (swing) because it took so much energy to get there," Goestenkors said.

But Duke's trouble started before Oklahoma stopped the run. The Blue Devils were 28-of-73 from the field and went to the foul line 10 fewer times than Oklahoma.

Beard, who averages 20 points, finished with 15 on just 6-of-15 shooting from the field.

Both teams had 16 turnovers, but the Sooners scored 19 points off Duke's miscues compared to 11 points for the Blue Devils.

And Duke's defense just wasn't at it's normal level.

"Our defense was terrible, and that's something we take pride in," Tillis said.

 

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