DURHAM, N.C. — Moments after she realized her team would be facing Southwest Missouri State in an NCAA tournament regional semifinal, Duke's Gail Goestenkors summarized almost everything she knew about the Lady Bears in two words.
"Jackie Stiles."
"No one's quite like Jackie," Goestenkors said of the NCAA scoring leader.
Ranked fifth nationally and top-seeded in the West regional, Duke (30-3) meets 15th-ranked and fifth-seeded Southwest Missouri State (27-5) on Saturday in Spokane, Wash.
The all-time Div. I scoring leader, Stiles averages 30.2 points a game. She scored 32 in the Bears' 60-53 second-round victory Monday at No. 11 Rutgers.
"She is just incredible," Goestenkors said. "She's shooting over 50 percent (50.8) from the 3-point line. You have to go out to defend her. Then, she has an unbelievably explosive first step. She loves the mid-range, pull-up jumper.... She can pull up on the dime. And she has a nice, little hesitation step where she can take you all the way to the basket."
Stiles presents a formidable challenge for Duke's defense, which was dominant in a 75-54 win Monday over Arkansas. The Blue Devils held Arkansas to 32.1 percent shooting and forced 19 turnovers that they converted into 25 points.
The victory marked the first 30-win season for Duke's women and propelled them to a fourth straight Sweet 16 under Goestenkors. It also made Duke the only school with both men's and women's teams still left in their respective NCAA tournaments.
The situation is similar to that of the 1999 NCAA tournament, when Duke's men were in the Final Four and the women reached the championship game for the first time.
There is a difference, however. The Duke women were seeded third in the East then; now, they are a No. 1 seed for the first time in the program's history.
"We all got caught up in the hoopla when we were in the national championship game at the same time as the men," said Georgia Schweitzer. "I'm not going to do that again. I think the team will be focused on each game as we play it."
However, Schweitzer said she planned to enjoy the long flight out West. She played in an AAU national 16-and-under tournament when she was a star on the Columbus (Ohio) Lions, and it was there that Goestenkors first laid eyes on her future two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year.
Goestenkors recalls that the first time she saw the "skinny" Schweitzer, she feared the 16-year-old was too frail to play for Duke.
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