Duke 96, Southern 27

3/20/2006 12:27 AM

By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Two losses in three games to end the regular season put Duke in a foul mood heading into the NCAA tournament, and Southern University paid the price.

Monique Currie scored 19 points, Lindsey Harding had 18 and Duke held the Jaguars to a tournament record-low for points in a 96-27 victory Sunday night.

It was Round 2 of Duke-Southern, but the women had a much easier time than J.J. Redick and the guys. The victory came two days after the Duke men's team dispatched Southern 70-54 in the men's tourney.

``I think it was good for us mentally,'' Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. ``We haven't blown a team out in a while. ... Confidence is sometimes such a fleeting thing. Honestly, this game was probably better for us mentally than physically other than to get the rust off.''

The top-seeded Blue Devils (27-3) dropped to No. 4 in the rankings after losing to No. 1 North Carolina in the regular-season finale, then to No. 3 Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. They had two weeks to get ready to play again.

``I think this was a really important game for us just to get it all started,'' said Harding, who also had five of Duke's 60 rebounds and three assists. ``There are six games on the way to the national championship and we wanted to start off right.''

The Blue Devils, top seeds for the fifth time in six years, will play eighth-seeded Southern Cal in the Bridgeport Regional on Tuesday.

Southern (20-11), seeking the first victory in 15 appearance by the Southwestern Athletic Conference, viewed the tournament bid as a nice reward after a difficult season that was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina.

Once the game started, it wasn't much of a reward. The No. 16 seed broke the record for scoring futility held by Long Island with 29 against Connecticut in 2001.

It had scoreless droughts of eight minutes in the first half, almost five minutes to start the second half and nearly nine minutes against Duke's reserves.

The Jaguars barely avoided also tying the mark of fewest field goals (10) in a tournament game when Ashley Blake banked in a 15-footer with 1:09 left.

``We were so out of sync the whole game and their size and defensive pressure caused us problems,'' said Southern coach Sandy Pugh said.

But she said the effort of some players faded as the game wore on.

``You give up 60 rebounds, you're just not giving the effort,'' she said.

The Jaguars had 28 rebounds and shot 18.3 percent. They also finished with 26 turnovers, almost matching their point total.

Tiffany Jones led Southern with seven points. SWAC player of the year Rolanda Monroe shot 2-for-7 and scored five, but Pugh said Monroe wasn't feeling well and her illness hurt the Jaguars.

Duke scored the game's first nine points, led 16-6 with 12 minutes to play and then held the Jaguars without a point for eight minutes in building a 32-6 advantage.

Ciara Shiggs finally broke that drought with a three-point play for Southern. She had to end another dry spell in the second half, when the Jaguars went scoreless for the first 4:53. When Shiggs' layup fell, the Blue Devils lead had grown to 50-18.