GREENSBORO, N.C. -- In one of the biggest upsets in the history of the relatively nascent sport of women's basketball, Duke ended Tennessee's run of three straight championships with a 69-63 win in the East Regional final last night.
The Blue Devils (28-6), who lost by 14 to the Lady Vols in a December game, stared down the Tennessee mystique with a flawless game plan and clutch shooting to capture the school's first Final Four berth.
Hardly anyone outside Durham gave Duke a chance to stay with, much less beat the top-seeded Lady Vols (31-3). But the third-seeded Blue Devils, who got a career-high 22 points from Georgia Schweitzer, overcame second-half foul trouble and a fierce Tennessee comeback to become the first school since Georgia in 1983 to send both its men's and women's team to the national semifinals.
The heart of the Duke game plan was to keep reigning National Player of the Year Chamique Holdsclaw off her game and it worked brilliantly. In her worst game as a collegian, Holdsclaw, a three-time All-American, shot just 2-for-18 from the floor for eight points, fouling out with 25.4 seconds remaining and sobbing on coach Pat Summitt's shoulder at the bench.
Trailing by 11 at the half, Tennessee responded with a 10-3 run, as Holdsclaw scored on a layup -- her first field goal -- and was fouled. Then Semeka Randall, making her first start since severely spraining her ankle 10 days before in the opening round of the tournament, hit a short base line jumper, then converted on a three-point play.
Defensively, the Lady Vols picked up their intensity, fighting through screens and forcing Duke farther out on the perimeter, and contesting the open jumpers that the Blue Devils had hit so easily in the first half, when they connected at a 60 percent clip from the floor.
The Blue Devils also got themselves into foul trouble, committing the first six team fouls of the second half, putting the Lady Vols into the bonus with 11: 36 to go. But Tennessee could not capitalize. Sophomore forward Tamika Catchings, a two-time All-American, missed two free throws with 6: 52 to go that would have given the Lady Vols a lead and perhaps break Duke's spirit.
The Blue Devils wavered, but never faltered. Senior guard Nicole Erickson hit two jumpers within a one-minute span to give Duke a 55-50 lead and the Lady Vols could never respond.
From the onset, the Blue Devils showed no sign of being intimidated by the Lady Vols, as junior forward Peppi Browne cleanly blocked a Tamika Catchings jumper from the foul line 14 seconds into the contest.
When Duke's Hilary Howard stripped Holdsclaw of a rebound, then kicked it out to Schweitzer for an open three-pointer with 12: 48 to go in the half, the Duke crowd -- badly outnumbered by a sea of orange-clad Tennessee partisans, started to sense something was in the works. And when Michele Van Gorp hit a 15-footer on the next possession, the feeling got more palpable.
Defensively, just as they had in the previous meeting in December, the Blue Devils did an excellent job of keeping Holdsclaw off-balance, by rotating different defenders on her, providing help each time she touched the ball and by pushing her out of the lane.
As a result, the 6-foot-2 forward, who shot just 6-for-15 in Orlando, missed her first 10 shots, and looked lost in the offense. But Holdsclaw wasn't alone; absent occasional penetration from Kelly Jolly or Kristen Clement, the Tennessee offense was thrown out of sync, having to settle for questionable jumpers.
On the offensive end, Duke, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with a 15-1 mark, was nearly picture-perfect in its execution.
The Blue Devils, who hit 39 percent of their three-pointers in the regular season, hit three in the first half, none bigger than Schweitzer's shot from the right wing with 3: 49 to go to give Duke a 31-20 lead, in the midst of a 9-0 run to seize control of the half.
Pub Date: 3/23/99