By By JOEDY McCREARY, AP Sports Writer
DURHAM — Abby Waner scored 18 points to lead No. 1 Duke to its 22nd straight victory, 75-65 over Virginia Tech on Monday night.
Alison Bales had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Lindsey Harding added 15 points for the Blue Devils (22-0, 7-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who overcame 19 points from the Hokies’ Britney Anderson.
Duke kept pace with North Carolina as the only remaining unbeatens in the country — and the ACC.
Brittany Cook scored 18 points, Kirby Copeland added 17 and Nare Diawara had 11 for the Hokies (14-9, 4-4).
Bales had her second double-double of the season while Harding scored in double figures for the seventh straight game to lead Duke to its seventh straight win in the series. The Hokies haven’t beaten Duke since 1998.
Virginia Tech gave Duke a scare for about a half before falling to 0-9 against No. 1 ranked teams. They lost their previous eight matchups with top-ranked teams by an average of 30 points.
The Blue Devils entered having won each of their games by an average margin of 28 points, but Virginia Tech made things interesting for a half by shooting nearly 54 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
The Hokies held Duke without a field goal for more than 5 minutes and built an 11-point lead. Anderson’s three-point play with about 8 minutes before halftime gave Virginia Tech a 26-15 lead.
Duke responded with a Waner-led 20-3 run to take the lead for good. Waner started the run with a 15-footer and scored nine points during the spurt, which she capped with an open-court layup with 2:26 before the half gave the Blue Devils a 35-29 lead.
Duke then opened the second half with a Harding-keyed 7-1 spurt to push the lead into double figures for the first time. Virginia Tech didn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.