Thomas scores 18, No. 9 Duke beats NC State 70-60 for 1st ACC tournament title since 2004

No. 9 Duke tops NC State 70-60 for ACC title

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Jasmine Thomas scored 18 points and No. 9 Duke captured its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 2004 by beating North Carolina State 70-60 on Sunday.

Karima Christmas added 13 points for the top-seeded Blue Devils (27-5). They forced 23 turnovers and outrebounded the Wolfpack 46-32 in claiming their sixth ACC title and first since winning five in a row from 2000-04.

The Blue Devils were in the final for the third time in ACC coach of the year Joanne P. McCallie’s three seasons, but had been stopped by powerful No. 1 seeds the last two years. This time, they held the No. 1 seed — and took full advantage.

Nikitta Gartrell had 19 points to lead the Wolfpack (20-13). They were denied in their bid to become the first team to win four games in four days here and were out for their third upset of a ranked team in eight days.

Joy Cheek had 11 points while Thomas, who averaged 16 points in the tournament, added six rebounds and six assists. Duke took the lead for good by reeling off 14 consecutive points during a 23-7 run midway through the first half, went up by 18 with about 8½ minutes remaining and refused to allow N.C. State to complete a second comeback in two days.

Brittany Strachan hit two 3-pointers in a 34-second span to pull the Wolfpack within 65-56 with just under 3 minutes left, but they couldn’t get any closer.

The Blue Devils’ reward: A banner to hang at Cameron Indoor Stadium and roughly two weeks off before their 16th straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Duke won the first meeting 70-39 on Feb. 11, and while it controlled the rematch throughout, this one was nowhere near that lopsided: The Blue Devils’ largest lead came when Cheek’s jumper made it 60-42 with 8:18 left.

Bonae Holston added 14 points for the Wolfpack, who reached the title game for the 14th time, but first since the 2007 team — inspired by Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow’s midseason return — knocked off No. 1 and unbeaten Duke on its way to a berth in the title game.

Three years after that unlikely ride, and a year after her death, and the late coach still was never far from anybody’s mind. Hanging from the rafters behind one basket was a banner bearing her name in pink, the color of breast-cancer awareness, with an inverted ribbon replacing the “Y” in her last name. Her replacement, Kellie Harper, was trying to become the first first-year coach to win the women’s tournament.

She helped N.C. State rally from 10 points down to beat Boston College in the semifinals. Early on in this one, Duke’s full-court pressure put the Wolfpack in that unwelcome position again.

That aggressive defense wound up proving too much for N.C. State, especially during the first-half run that put the Blue Devils on their way to the title. They forced 15 turnovers in the opening half — 10 during that spurt, and many of those created by the press that continually frustrated the Wolfpack.

Christmas gave Duke its only double-figure lead of the half when her leaning jumper with 5½ minutes left made it 27-16.