By BRYAN STRICKLAND
bstrickland@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
DURHAM -- Basketball fans often associate the term "zone" with passive play, but Thursday night in the third annual Big Ten/ACC Women's Basketball Challenge, No. 11 Duke rolled to an impressive victory behind a pair of dynamic zones.
The Blue Devils' mobile and physical matchup zone defense made things difficult for No. 3 Ohio State, and junior Jasmine Thomas got into the proverbial "zone" on the offensive end, pouring in a career-high 29 points to lead the Blue Devils to an 83-67 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Though Ohio State center Jantel Lavender ended up close to her 24.3-point average with 20 points and 18 rebounds, Duke's defense challenged her all night. Still, the Blue Devils didn't take control until Thomas presented the Buckeyes with a challenge they couldn't answer: She misfired on 8 of 10 shots to start, but hit 8 of 10 to close as Duke pulled away in the second half.
"I would say I was in a little bit of a zone," Thomas said. "My shots weren't falling, and then I realized that I was rushing my shots a little bit.
"In the second half, I just decided to attack the basket more -- I didn't really get anything inside in the first half. That was just a change in my mentality."
As a result, the Blue Devils (6-1) triumphed in the 1,000th game in school history, improving to 669-331. Duke won its third consecutive home game against a top-10 opponent and helped the ACC out as well, as the conference claimed the Challenge for the third consecutive season.
"That's the kind of game I came for," said Duke freshman post player Allison Vernerey, a native of France who contributed season highs of 13 points and eight rebounds. "You don't come for easy games.
"There was so much energy, and it was so great to be a part of that."
Vernerey and her fellow reserves certainly played a role in the first half. With Thomas struggling and starter Joy Cheek sidelined with an ankle injury (she did return in the second half), Duke's reserves accounted for 15 first-half points as the Devils claimed a 31-27 lead.
Vernerey and starting center Krystal Thomas -- who scored just six points but tied a career high with 13 rebounds -- were always in the middle of things against Lavender. A late 3-pointer got her to 20 points, but she hit just 7 of 18 shots and didn't dominate any significant stretch of play.
"I thought me and Allison just did a great job of being physical with her and throwing different looks at her to keep her guessing," said Thomas, who added four blocked shots. "She had 20 points, but I felt like she had to earn every one of those points."
With Lavender relatively under wraps and Ohio State point guard Samantha Prahalis dealing with foul and turnover trouble, all that remained was for Duke's offense to find its way.
Thomas took care of that. Ohio State hit 3 of 10 from 3-point range in the first half but hit all three of its attempts early in the second half to take a 41-37 lead -- just enough to awaken Thomas.
She responded with a 3-pointer, then a three-point play off of one of Ohio State's 21 turnovers (eight for Prahalis) to jumpstart a 14-3 run, and Duke never trailed again.
The Buckeyes (8-1), after falling behind by 12 points, rallied to within 66-61 at the 5:56 mark, but then Duke's defense didn't allow another field goal until Lavender hit her 3 with 15.3 seconds left.
"I was so pleased to see our defense and rebounding," Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "You always know a coach is going to talk about those things, but to hold a team that's averaging 89 points a game to 67 and to get them to shoot 37 percent from the floor, that's just a very good thing."
