After the Duke men's basketball team was upset at Florida State last week, the Duke women's basketball team made sure it wouldn't leave Tallahassee with a loss on Friday.
The Blue Devils cruised to an 87-70 victory over the Seminoles and prevented Florida State from pulling off a sweep over Duke in the men's and women's games.
"Credit Duke for playing great team basketball tonight," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said of the Blue Devils on January 18 in the Duke Chronicle."I thought that they were more solid than we were."
So far this winter, things have been solid for the Blue Devils. Duke is one of two undefeated women's basketball teams (the other is Florida Gulf Coast) and is ranked third behind Baylor and UConn. The Blue Devils are 17-0 overall and 3-0 in ACC play and have picked up five wins over teams in the top 25.
Duke will look to stay undefeated on Friday, when it host Georgia Tech in a battle of undefeated ACC teams. Georgia Tech, which is unranked, is 4-0 in league play.
It will be the Blue Devils' first home game since Jan. 6, when they beat Maryland at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke is 9-0 at home.
Then on Sunday, the Blue Devils wrap up their weekend with a road game against rival North Carolina State at Raleigh. It's the first meeting between the two schools since Duke beat the Wolfpack in the ACC tournament championship game last March.
Duke is setting its sights on heading to the Final Four at Indianapolis this year after suffering a heartbreaking loss to Baylor in the Elite Eight in Memphis.
Before its road game with Florida State on Friday, the Blue Devils had played four consecutive games that ended in single-digit victories.
Against the Seminoles, Duke made 52 percent (34 of 65) of its shots. The Blue Devils led 40-30 at halftime and never looked back.
Two days later, the Blue Devils finished with a 2-0 road trip with a 57-43 victory over Virginia Tech. The two teams will play each other again on Feb. 20 in Durham.
Duke has been ranked third since Dec. 20, a day after beating Oklahoma State 73-45 on the road. The Blue Devils began their season at No. 6.
Duke has 12 regular season games remaining, including the big contest against two-time defending champion UConn on Jan. 31.
Jasmine Thomas, Karima Christmas and Krystal Thomas make up the Duke seniors and all of them have been valuable members for the Blue Devils. Jasmine Thomas is the team's leader in scoring (15.6 points per game) and three-pointers (26) and assists (60). Krystal Thomas leads the Blue Devils in rebounds (7.7 rebounds per game). Christmas is second in scoring (9.6 ppg) and rebounds (5.6 rpg).
Big jump: Miami continues to be hot as the city itself.
The Hurricanes extended their winning streak to 17 games after beating Boston College 65-53 on Sunday. The win bumped Miami's record to 18-1 overall and 4-0 in ACC play.
"You can coach all your life and never feel this proud of a team," Miami coach Katie Meier said in the Miami Herald on Monday. "And it was just unbelievable guts and effort and energy and commitment to each other. The chemistry in how much they love each other just shows on the court. I'm certainly going to say how much I love this team and how proud I am of this effort."
After an eight-day break, the Hurricanes travel to Florida State on Monday to play the Seminoles.
Welcome back, Dawgs: For the first time since mid-December, the Georgia Bulldogs are back in the polls.
Georgia earned a No. 24 ranking after getting wins over Arkansas and Florida last week. The Bulldogs are 14-3 overall and 4-0 in SEC play and will take a five-game winning streak into their road game with Alabama on Thursday.
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