At halftime of UAA's Sunday morning exhibition game against powerhouse Duke University, Seawolves coach Tim Moser told a radio broadcaster he had a simple reason for taking his team cross-country to face one of the premier women's basketball teams in the nation.

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Tamar Gruwell

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"We want to make sure we see the best," he said.

At the time, Moser's team trailed by 25 points -- and had yet to see the best Duke had to offer.

That came in the second half, when the Blue Devils stepped up an already smothering defense to completely stonewall the Seawolves en route to a 100-32 exhibition victory at fabled Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.

"You know, one thing you try to get out of this is to see the best," Moser reiterated after the game. "The pressure they put on us is something we won't see again. There are some teams at our level that do it with length and athleticism, so it's something we wanted to see."

UAA scored just 10 points the entire second half, waiting almost 12 minutes before scoring its first field goal. By the time Nikiski's Sarah Herrin canned a 3-pointer, the game was beyond a mismatch: Herrin's basket cut Duke's lead to 82-28.

The game was a contest between one of the best NCAA Division I teams in the country and one of the best NCAA Division II teams in the country. Duke is ranked sixth in the nation and UAA eighth in their respective divisions.

UAA hung around for the first several minutes, tying things 10-10 on Nikki Aden's layup and trailing just 18-13 on Tamar Gruwell's 3-pointer about seven minutes into the game.

That was as good as it got.

Confounding the Seawolves with near-constant full-court pressure, Duke scored eight of the last nine points of the first half to lead 47-22 and then reeled off the first eight points of the second half to go up 55-22.

UAA was never a factor in the second half, scoring just two field goals and sinking five free throws.

The statistics tell the story of the game.

Duke shot out the lights, hitting 52.4 percent of its shots, including 13 of 25 from 3-point range. UAA was 8 of 41 for 19.5 percent.

UAA had 33 turnovers to the Blue Devils' 15 and 19 rebounds to their 45. None of the Seawolves scored in double figures, but five players did for Duke.

"There are three things that we believe in our program: We want to get block-outs, we want to take care of the ball and we want to stop people in transition," Moser said. "None of those things we did tonight, and a lot of that has to do with how talented and overwhelming (Duke's players) are."

The game was UAA's first without All-America center Rebecca Kielpinski, whose jersey number was retired at the end of her senior year last season.

Hanna Johansson, a sophomore center from Sweden, showed signs of toughness inside, but none of the Seawolves had a game to remember.

"We are a young team and I think sometimes young teams play harder when things go well," Moser said. "Things went bad tonight and we dropped our concentration and some of the things we needed to do."

Moser set up the exhibition game with Duke simply by calling Duke coach Joanne McCallie and asking if she was interested. She was.

"Exhibitions can be a lot of different things, but I love to play against teams that are really good at their level because they know what to do and they execute, they're very well coached," McCallie said.

The game was Duke's final exhibition contest of the season and its second romp against a Division II team in four days. On Thursday, the Blue Devils forced 41 turnovers in a 99-31 exhibition win over Wingate.

It was UAA's only exhibition game of the season, although on their way to North Carolina the Seawolves stopped at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., to scrimmage the Navy team. No score was kept.

The Seawolves open the season for real with a pair of games next week against Hawaii-Hilo. The series begins Sunday with a 5 p.m. game at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.

UAA (32)

Miller 1-8 4-4 6, Johansson 2-4 0-2 4, Taylor 0-5 2-2 2, Gruwell 3-8 0-0 9, Aden 1-5 3-4 5, Collins 0-0 0-0 0, Stepovich 0-3 0-0 0, McBride 0-1 0-0 0, Herrin 1-1 0-0 3, Wohlers 0-0 0-0 0, Larsen 0-1 0-0 0, Gourdin 0-4 3-4 3. Totals 8-41 12-16 32.

DUKE (100)

Cheek 4-8 3-4 14, K. Thomas 2-5 1-2 5, J. Thomas 7-14 2-3 20, Christmas 6-8 2-2 18, Mitchell 1-4 2-2 4, Hopkins 1-1 0-0 2, Selby 0-4 0-0 0, Scheer 3-6 1-2 9, Rogers 3-5 4-6 10, Vernerey 6-8 6-7 18. Totals 33-63 21-28 100.

Halftime score -- Duke 47, UAA 22.

Three-point goals -- UAA 4-19 (Miller 0-4, Johansson 0-1, Taylor 0-2, Gruwell 3-6, Aden 0-1, Stepovich 0-2, McBride 0-1, Larsen 0-1), Duke 13-25 (Cheek 3-5, K. Thomas 0-1, J. Thomas 4-6, Christmas 4-4, Mitchell 0-1, Selby 0-2, Scheer 2-5, Rogers 0-1). Rebounds -- UAA 19 (Miller 6), Duke 45 (Vernerey 10, Christmas 9). Assists -- UAA 6 (Johansson 3), Duke 19 (Hopkins 5). Steals -- UAA 7 (Gruwell 3), Duke 18 (four players with 3). Turnovers -- UAA 33 (Miller 10), Duke 15 (K. Thomas 4). Blocked shots -- UAA 1, Duke 6. Total fouls -- UAA 23, Duke 19. Fouled out -- Taylor. Officials -- Salerno, Stanton, Bryant.

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