FRESNO, Calif. — Shay Selby is the one who slept on the cross-country flight to get herself adjusted to West Coast time. She’s the one who kept reminding her teammates this was a business trip.
Second-seeded Duke rode its lone senior starter yet again Saturday night, moving within a victory of the program’s first Final Four since 2006 with a 74-47 rout of No. 3 seed St. John’s in the Fresno Regional semifinals.
Selby dished off and knocked down jumpers, taking charge in the second half to finish with 18 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.
“This is my last go-round. I want to go out with a bang and let my energy trickle down to the other players,” she said.
Chelsea Gray, who grew up some 75 miles north in Stockton, scored 13 points to go with 8 steals, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in her homecoming to California’s Central Valley. Tricia Liston added 15 points for the Blue Devils (25-5) in what was a far more lopsided result than most expected.
Duke will play the winner between top-seeded Stanford and No. 5 seed South Carolina on Monday night for a trip to Denver and the Final Four.
Selby had five points and two assists in the opening 4:55 of the second half and knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the arc that built Duke’s lead to 49-29. She hit another three with a minute left in the game, a sign of just how well things went in another impressive offensive performance by Duke.
“Shay was fantastic as a senior for us,” Duke Coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “You’re seeing a senior all right. What a stat line.”
Da’Shena Stevens scored 19 points in her final game for St. John’s (24-10), which didn’t have another player with more than six points.
Duke knew far too well about what the Red Storm could do. St. John’s pulled off the stunner of the season with a 57-56 upset at Connecticut on Feb. 18 that ended the Huskies’ 99-game home winning streak in Storrs — then won its first- and second-round NCAA games by a combined six points, including Nadirah McKenith’s coast-to-coast layup with 0.1 seconds remaining to beat Creighton in the first round.
Duke used a 16-0 run spanning halftime to take control, and only built on that momentum the rest of the way.
Blue Devils freshman Elizabeth Williams, recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right leg, scored 10 points.
McCallie’s young Blue Devils team showed the poise of a group that has been this deep in March 14 times in the past 15 years — even with a young roster. Selby is the only senior starter leading a Blue Devils group that was barely tested in the opening two rounds in Nashville, Tenn. — an 82-47 first-round victory over Samford and a 96-80 victory over Vanderbilt in which they shot a season-best 65.6 percent from the floor with 28 assists.
Once Duke found a way to keep Stevens from driving to the basket so easily after the early minutes, the Blue Devils set the tone the rest of the way. Duke shot 53.7 percent overall. Stevens overmatched 6-3 Duke center Haley Peters and scored 10 consecutive points during one stretch early in the first half, but Duke switched to a zone to fluster St. John’s with height on the perimeter.
Sports, Pages 25 on 03/25/2012