Perfection For The Duke Women

The Duke women's basketball team has accomplished a magnificent feat during the regular season. -- the first ACC women's team to ever have an unbeaten regular season (29-0).

They capped it Sunday holding off arch-rival Carolina 67-62 in a madcapped, helter-skelter game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devil women go into ACC tournament play this week as the only unbeaten team in men or women's college basketball. It's quite an accomplishment.

This was a Duke team that was picked third in the ACC coming into this season. I still look at them on paper and wonder how the heck have they done this? I'm still not sure their talent is better than Carolina's or Maryland's.

Howqever, games aren't won on paper, they're won on the court and Duke plays together about as well as a team can. They have a great point guard in Lindsey Harding who keys everything offensively and defensively and 6-7 Alison Bales is such a presence on the inside. It's amazing how she's improved during her four years.

Carolina at 27-3 is also one of the top teams in the country and they truly believed they could end Duke's streak. They almost did. The Tar Heels are so athletic and when they took a 56-55 lead with 7:45 to go, there was a lot of uneasy squirming among the partisan Duke fans. They could sense it may be slipping away.

But a tough, tenacious defense has won games for Duke this season and it did again. Duke put the clamps on holding Carolina without a bucket for seven minutes. It was Duke that seemed to have the fresh legs, that little extra that can make a champion. It was Duke not panicking in the face of adversity.

Now Duke tried to keep it close. The Devils missed enough free throws to cause Gail Goestenkors to age 10 years, but they made just enough to stay perfect. Going 29-0 is gaudy and it's impressive, but Duke knows it is the end of one journey and that another is just beginning.

"You don't get a banner that says undefeated for the season," said Alison Bales, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds in her final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. "But it is an accomplishment and we're really proud of what we've done so far this season, but ready for the next part of our season."

This week's ACC tournament will have more obstacles as Heels, Terps, the Wolfpack and more will all come after what has been perfect so far. Beyond that is the NCAA tournament with the big prize to be awarded in early April. Duke certainly knows how tough it is to win it all.

But for at least a day or two, they should reflect and be proud and feel a small sense of perfection. It hasn't happened in the ACC before. It may be awhile before it happens again.