This Was Pulled Out of the Blue

It’s hard to imagine the spotlight on Duke basketball getting any brighter.

It did Monday night when the Duke women ended Chamique Holdsclaw and Tennessee’s three-year run as national champion with a 69-63 victory in the East Regional final at Greensboro, N.C.

“The pressure was really on them,” Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors said. “It has been a long time since we’ve been the underdog. We were picked to win the ACC, so we kind of relished being the underdog. They had everything to lose and we had respect to gain.”

The Blue Devils (28-6) joined their men’s team in the Final Four with the stunning victory over the top-seeded Lady Volunteers (31-3).

Duke became the first program to place both its men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Final Four since Georgia did it in 1983.

The Lady Volunteers shot only 38% and Holdsclaw, the top women’s player in the game, missed her first 10 shots and finished two for 18 from the field for eight points--matching her season low.

She fouled out with 25.4 seconds to play to end her stellar career, receiving a standing ovation.

Coach Pat Summitt, Holdsclaw and fellow senior Kellie Jolly were in tears in the postgame interviews.

“I think it’s obvious we’re in a lot of pain,” said Summitt, who saw her team’s 21-game NCAA tournament winning streak end. “Our seniors are champions, three out of four is not bad.”

Georgia Schweitzer matched her career high with 22 points in front of male counterparts Trajan Langdon, Chris Carrawell and Shane Battier, who had driven an hour from the Duke campus to the Greensboro Coliseum to cheer the women.

Duke, which lost to Tennessee by 14 points in December, will face Georgia in the national semifinals Friday in San Jose.

Semeka Randall led Tennessee (31-3) with 18 points.

OTHER GAMES

Purdue is going to the Final Four for the second time after beating Rutgers, 75-62, in the Midwest Regional at Normal, Ill.

The Boilermakers (32-1) got Rutgers (29-6) in foul trouble and capitalized by making 30 of 46 free throws. Rutgers was called for 32 fouls and was only seven for 15 from the line.

The Boilermakers also got a big lift from 6-foot-4 sophomore Camille Cooper, who scored a career-high 20 points, including five at the start of the second half to get her team going.

Stephanie White-McCarty, named the outstanding player in the regional, scored nine of her 22 points in the final 4:12, while Uraki Figgs had 13 of her 18 points in the final 6:33.

The victory means Carolyn Peck will coach at least one more game at Purdue. She’s leaving when the season ends to become coach and general manager of the WNBA’s Orlando franchise.

Purdue also reached the Final Four in 1994.

Georgia 89, Iowa State 71--The Lady Bulldogs (27-6) earned their fifth Final Four trip behind the shooting of Kelly Miller, who went six for eight on three-point shots and scored 33 points in the Mideast Regional final at Cincinnati.

Iowa State (25-8) had rallied to upset top-seeded Connecticut in the regional semifinals with five late three-point baskets. But Georgia refused to let that happen, turning the three-point shot into its own most formidable weapon and taking the outside shot away from Iowa State with solid man-to-man defense.