Duke Has Revenge on Its Mind

Four months after losing at home to South Carolina, Duke will face the Gamecocks again tonight (tip-off 4 p.m. PDT) in the East Regional final at Raleigh, N.C.

Top-seeded Duke (30-3) has won 27 of 28 since that loss, including a school-record 21 in a row. The Blue Devils are looking to return to the Final Four for the first time since reaching the national championship game in 1999.

The Duke players say they haven’t forgotten the way South Carolina’s players danced on Coach K Court after their 87-81 overtime victory on Nov. 25.

“That was really hard for us,” Duke’s Vicki Krapohl said. “The way they carried themselves off the court and holding their hands up like they were No. 1. It’s definitely a motivation.”

“That was a big game for us,” the Gamecocks’ Jocelyn Penn said. “I’m really surprised they were upset that we danced--but, hey, we had just won. What were we supposed to do?”

South Carolina is 25-6, a season after going 11-17.

In the other regional finals:

* Old Dominion (28-5) will play undefeated, No. 1-ranked Connecticut (36-0) in the Mideast Regional at Milwaukee (tip-off 4:30 p.m.). Connecticut, which has won 36 in a row, beat Old Dominion, 84-70, in December.

* Oklahoma (30-3) meets Colorado (24-9) in the West Regional at Boise, Idaho (tip-off 6:30 p.m.)--the winner becoming the first Big 12 team to reach the women’s Final Four.

* Vanderbilt (30-6) and Tennessee (28-4)--conference and intrastate rivals separated by 180 miles--meet in the Midwest Regional at Ames, Iowa (tip-off 6:30 p.m.).