Colleges

Bulls put in their place, promptly

A rout by Duke shows the USF women how far they have to go to reach elite status.

By GREG AUMAN
Published November 16, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Brian Cassella | Times] USF's Shantia Grace has her shot blocked by Jasmine Thomas, right, as Krystal Thomas defends. Grace, one of several Bulls in foul trouble, had a team-high 12 points on 4-for-18 shooting.

TAMPA - Included with three national powers in a high-profile doubleheader Thursday night, USF had hoped to show it belonged among the heavyweights of women's college basketball.

Instead, No. 10 Duke handed the Bulls a humbling 89-52 drubbing at the St. Pete Times Forum. So while the Women's Final Four will be downtown in April, USF saw just how far it has to go to get there.

"We talked a couple of days ago that this game, whether we won or lost, wasn't going to define our season," said USF coach Jose Fernandez, who took his most lopsided loss since 87-44 at LSU in December 2005. "We need to get better, and we will get better, by every practice and every game, with so many new faces in our lineup."

While the outcome wasn't that surprising - Duke beat USF 82-50 three years ago in Durham -the Bulls missed an opportunity to showcase their program on a national level.

"Duke's energy and enthusiasm, a lot of our kids folded a little bit under a little bit of pressure," Fernandez said. "A lot of our players haven't been put in that situation to play the caliber of a Duke, Oklahoma, LSU or Michigan State. We're going to have to get used it."

USF (1-1) led 4-2 early, but Duke (2-0) quickly took control, jumping out to a 27-15 lead. If the game was still within reach, the Blue Devils put that away with an 11-0 run to end the half.

"It was a 12-point ball game with about 3:38 (left in the half), and those last four minutes, Duke really opened it up," Fernandez said. "We got into foul trouble, we didn't take care of the basketball and they won the paint."

As if the 38-15 halftime deficit weren't enough, USF had leading scorer Shantia Grace with four fouls - Fernandez had kept her in the game, believing she had only three - and starters Jessica Lawson and ChiChi Okpaleke with three each.

Grace never picked up her fifth, but three Bulls did, as USF committed 30 fouls; it didn't matter that Duke hit 60 percent of their free throws because the Blue Devils went to the line 38 times.

"It's tough, but these are the kind of games we have to learn from and keep our head up," said Grace, who led the team with 12 points on 4-for-18 shooting.

Duke played without leading scorer Abby Waner, out with a sprained ankle, and barely missed a beat. Center Chante Black led the way with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and the Blue Devils politely went to their bench, playing 11 players at least 14 minutes. If Duke can make it back to the Times Forum this spring, it won't be nearly as easy, but the thought was still exciting to consider.

"It's a tremendous thing to be projecting into March, these four teams having this opportunity to be in this great city and take a peek," Duke coach Joanne McCallie said. "I told our team to breathe really heavy, to suck up the air in the place as something familiar to take home and want to come back to."

[Last modified November 16, 2007, 01:18:27]