Associated Press
RALEIGH ó Chante Black wasn’t comfortable in her seat during the first half. She got more involved in the action after the break.
Black scored all 17 of her points and grabbed all but one of her career-high 17 rebounds after halftime, helping No. 4 Duke rally past N.C. State 61-58 in overtime on Monday night.
“It was that saying, ‘Make the most of your minutes,’ ” said Black, who spent the final 13:14 of the first half on the bench after picking up her second foul. “I just went out there and played hard. I didn’t have the opportunity to play in the first half really, so I knew I had to step up and play.”
Karima Christmas also scored 17 points for the Blue Devils (16-1, 4-0 ACC). They came back from a 14-point deficit in the first half to win their 14th consecutive game.
Salisbury High graduate Shayla Fields forced overtime for the Wolfpack (8-10, 0-3), tying the game twice in the final two minutes of regulation. She hit a 3-pointer with 1:58 left and made a jumper from the left elbow to even the score at 52-all with 29.5 seconds remaining.
Fields played all 45 minutes and scored 20 points on 6-for-23shooting. She also had four assists and three steals while reaching the 20-point plateau for the eighth time this season.
N.C. State, playing without coach Kay Yow as she fights a recurrence of breast cancer, lost starting guard Sharnise Beal to a head injury midway through the first half. Beal, who scored five points in nine minutes, didn’t return after hitting the back of her head while being fouled.
“I thought we gave a tremendous effort,” N.C. State interim head coach Stephanie Glance said. “To battle like we battled and be short-handed once again, it’s just such a credit to this team.
“We talked a lot yesterday and we talked a lot today about the one thing we were going to do is represent Coach Yow’s fight. And to me, we could not have represented that in any greater way than we did today.”
It was the fourth consecutive defeat and the second overtime loss to a top-five team in eight days for N.C. State, which fell at North Carolina 75-66 on Jan. 11.
The Wolfpack used a 17-0 spurt to go ahead 25-12, and it led 31-17. Duke trailed 36-27 at the break and scored the first 11 points of the second half.
Black scored Duke’s first five points of overtime, and Christmas hit a layup to give the Blue Devils a 59-54 lead with 1:38 to play. N.C. State had a chance to send the game to a second extra period, but Brittany Strachan’s 3-pointer bounced off the front of the rim at the final buzzer.