Greensboro, NC–Boston College will play N.C. State in the semifinals on Saturday. The Eagles won the first matchup, 72-54, on Dec. 29. Six players scored in double-figures for the Wolfpack in that first contest. BC upset Duke, 84-77, in the late game of the ACC Tournament.
BC built a small lead in the first quarter, but the Blue Devils continued to scrap and Duke ended up taking an 18-17 lead into the second quarter.
The Blue Devils took a small lead into the second quarter, but Taylor Ortlepp knotted things up at 29 with just under 6 minutes to go into the break. Both teams went back and forth for the rest of the quarter, but Duke ended up taking a two-point lead into halftime.
“You have to play a full 40 minutes,” Blue Devils coach Joanne McCallie said. “There plays to finish, rebounds to get and the ball to take care of, so we didn’t finish down the stretch.”
The Blue Devils were down by three points at the start of the fourth quarter and it appeared bad for Duke. Haley Gorecki found Kyra Lambert who hit a contested three and tied the game. Soon after, Gorecki took over with an attack mode attitude, hitting a trey and following it up with an and-one to put Duke up by seven points.
BC closed the game on a 16-2 run over the final 5:38. The Blue Devils ended the game hitting just one of their final 10 shots from the field, after leading by seven with 4:45 remaining in the contest.
The Blue Devils turned the ball over four times in the final 4:45 and looked stagnant in their half-court offense.
Boston Colleg Taylor Soule led all scorers with 26 points, one of four BC players in double figures. Haley Gorecki led the Blue Devils with 25 points. Leaonna Odom chipped in with 22 and Jade Williams had 12 points. Odom scored the final field goal for Duke on a fastbreak and things went down from that point.
“Disappointing for us, no doubt,” McCallie said. “But I think some very valuable lessons for us moving forward.”
After a promising run late in the season, Duke will have to wait and see what seed it will get for the NCAA tournament in a couple of weeks.
