jjohnson@heraldsun.com; 419-6667
DURHAM -- Even though Duke owns a 32-game winning streak against Wake Forest, Blue Devils' coach Joanne P. McCallie said today's matchup could be more difficult than some of the recent games.
A lot of Wake Forest's scoring has come from outside, and that is one of the concerns McCallie has for the game.
"Wake is an interesting team," McCallie said. "They're better than last year. They're much more athletic than they've been."
Brittany Waters leads Wake Forest (10-5, 1-0 ACC) in scoring with 16 points a game, while Sandra Garcia and Secily Ray each average close to 10 points. The Demon Deacons are coming off an exciting last-possession win over Virginia Tech in their conference opener, as Garcia made the game-winning 3-pointer.
"They're a guard-oriented team, and everything is coming from the perimeter," McCallie said. "Everybody for them shoots the 3. Hopefully, we can disrupt what they're on offense."
No. 9 Duke (13-2, 1-0) is riding a 22-game home winning streak and has been led by Jasmine Thomas, who has aver aged 15 points over the past four games and made 6 of 8 attempts from 3-point range. The Blue Devils won their 13th consecutive ACC opener with a 67-41 win at Clemson on Thursday.
While the offenses of both teams might stand out, both teams head into the game among the nation's top-20 defensive teams. The Demon Deacons are 17th, one spot ahead of Duke, and both are holding opponents to an average of fewer than 54 points per game.
Duke senior Joy Cheek has scored at least 10 points in all three games against the Deacons.
Meanwhile, Thomas was the sparkplug for Duke a year ago, posting 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting and pulling down six rebounds in the Blue Devils' 83-50 win.
Duke's most recent loss to Wake was in the 1993 ACC Tournament.
