Clemson Women Fall to #1 Duke in Basketball Action, 97-65

Jan. 26, 2006

The Clemson women’s basketball team fell to top-ranked Duke at Littlejohn Coliseum on Thursday evening by a score of 97-65. With the win, the Blue Devils improved to 20-0 on the season, 7-0 in the ACC. Clemson fell to 8-12 overall with the loss, 2-4 in league play.

Four different Lady Tigers reached double figures in the scoring column for Clemson. Leading the way was Maxienne White, who had 13 in the first half and 14 for the game. She hit 3-3 from beyond the arc and had a team-high nine rebounds. It marked the fifth consecutive game she reached double figures and led the Lady Tigers in scoring.

Amanda Frist added 13 points on 5-8 shooting, in addition to recording six rebounds and two blocked shots. Tasha Phillips scored 12 points on 5-11 shooting, while Tasha Taylor scored 10 points and added seven rebounds from her point guard position.

For the Blue Devils, sophomore Wanisha Smith posted a season-best 16 points, while Lindsey Harding led Duke in scoring with 17 points. A third Duke player in double digits was All-American Monique Currie, who had 16 as well.

In the first half, Clemson held a 10-7 lead after an Amanda Frist jumper at the 15:09 mark. However, Duke responded with a 15-4 run to move ahead by a score of 22-14 with just over nine minutes to play. Clemson then went on a 7-0 run, ending with White’s first three-point basket of the night just before the under-eight media timeout. From that point, Duke put together a 22-2 run to give the Blue Devils a comfortable margin at half.

In the second half, Duke shot 60.6 percent from the field and hit 5-10 shots from three-point range to put 51 points on the board. The Lady Tigers shot 37.5 percent in the half, after shooting 44 percent in the first period. Duke won the battle inside with 36 points in the paint, versus 18 for Clemson. The Blue Devils also scored 36 points off the bench, compared to 11 for the Lady Tigers. Duke built a 38-point lead in the half before settling for the final margin. For Clemson, Phillips and Frist combined for 15 points in the second half.

Next up for the Lady Tigers is a game against Georgia Tech at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta on Sunday, January 29 at 2:00 PM.