Women Beat Duke For First Time Since Joining ACC

The players on the court may have been different, but, for the second straight year, a Boston College basketball team upset Duke.

The BC women's basketball team (13-10, 4-4 ACC) knocked off No. 6 Duke, 61-57, Thursday night at Conte Forum. In a game during which the lead changed 12 times, BC shot 95.2 percent from the free-throw line as a team and forced the Blue Devils (18-4, 6-1 ACC) into 20 turnovers.

Junior center Carolyn Swords led BC with 14 points and nine rebounds. Swords, who scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half, completed 10 of 10 foul shots down the stretch to help seal the win for the Eagles. BC also outrebounded the Blue Devils, 47-33.

"I thought Carolyn's rebounds at the end of the game were huge, and she was just holding on for dear life, and they're hitting her arms and she was able to make some tough free throws at the end," said BC head coach Sylvia Crawley. "She goes up and down on her free throws, but today I thought she had that killer instinct. She made the big play, the big shot when it counted."

The Eagles opened the game with a 7-0 run that was fueled by baskets from Swords, senior guard Brittanny Johnson, and junior forward Stefanie Murphy. The Blue Devils did not score their first basket of the game until a 3-pointer by Karima Christmas at 15:01. BC continued to build on its early advantage, with its largest lead of the half coming on an Ayla Brown layup with 9:30 remaining, bringing the score to 17-9.

Duke bounced back over the next four minutes, though, and eventually took its first lead of the game when a 3-pointer from sophomore Kathleen Scheer brought the score to 21-20. The teams traded baskets for the remainder of the half, and Jasmine Thomas hit a 3-point shot with 22 seconds left to give Duke a two-point advantage. Junior guard Jaclyn Thoman then answered with a 3-pointer of her own to send the teams into the locker room tied at 30.

By halftime, all BC players that entered the game had scored, and the Eagles held a 20-12 rebounding advantage. Johnson led the way with six points, while both Thoman and Picco added five.

Both teams continued to trade the lead during the second half, but BC eventually took back control. Murphy hit a jumper from the free-throw line at 8:00 to bring the score to 44-43, and Duke did not lead for the rest of the game.

Duke tied the game with 58.5 seconds remaining on a jumper from the top of the key by Thomas, but the Blue Devils then proceeded to miss their next five shots. Facing pressure from Duke's full-court press, BC held onto the ball and controlled the clock for the remainder of the game. The Eagles then made six of six free throws over the last 51 seconds to close out the upset.

"We've had games in the past where we've been up and down, and the game hasn't always gone our way and we just kept telling ourselves, ‘Be positive, one game we're going to close the deal,'" Thoman said. "I think we all just had a feeling, you could tell our energy was coming, we all just felt really well. And, like coach always says, we just put the nail in the coffin."

Thoman finished the game with nine points and three assists, while Picco added 12 points. Thomas, Duke's leading scorer, finished with a game-high 19 points.
Duke, which has spent 200 straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 25, was handed its first ACC loss of the season. The last time BC defeated a team ranked in the Top 10 was against then-No. 2 Ohio State on March 21, 2006.

"It only takes one game like this to turn our team around in terms of our confidence level," Crawley said. "I think this is the first time this team has upset one of the top teams in the ACC, and so until that happens, you're always intimidated by those teams. This is huge for this team. They have the confidence now; they feel like they belong in every game. I've seen a mentality shift in this team from just hoping that the top teams didn't just beat us by 30 to tonight. I saw a difference in their focus before the game."