No. 5 Duke 71, Boston College 62

Published Feb. 10, 2012 2:44 a.m. ET

foxsports

Chelsea Gray scored 10 of Duke's last 12 points and the No. 5 Blue Devils avoided a shocking upset with a 71-62 win over Boston College on Thursday night.

Gray hit a jumper that gave Duke a 61-55 lead with 3:22 left. But BC closed that to 61-60 on a 3-pointer by Tessah Holt and two free throws by Katie Zenevitch.

Gray, who led all scorers with 19 points, then made a 3-pointer, Kristen Doherty hit a layup for BC and Gray sank another 3-pointer, making it 67-62 with 1:28 to play. The Blue Devils finished with a short hook by Haley Peters and two free throws by Gray.

Duke (20-3, 11-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Elizabeth Williams, her sixth double-double of the season, and 16 points from Peters.

BC (5-19, 0-11) was led by Doherty with 17 and Shayra Brown with 12. The Eagles set a school record with their 11th consecutive loss.

Before the opening tip, the game seemed like a huge mismatch. Duke had beaten Wake Forest by 32 points and No. 22 North Carolina by 40 in its last two games. BC had lost eight of its 10 ACC games by at least 10 points. And the Blue Devils had a size advantage.

But every time they seemed poised to break the game open, BC came back.

BC led for the last time at 18-16 before Duke scored the next 11 points to take a 27-18 lead 4:43 before intermission. But the Eagles rallied by scoring the last eight points of the half and trailed just 32-31.

Duke added to its lead at the start of the second half but couldn't pull away.

With the score 39-33, the teams alternated baskets until the Blue Devils went ahead 52-44 on a 3-pointer by Gray with 11:09 to go. Then the Eagles scored the next four points on two free throws by Brown and a layup by Tiffany Ruffin, cutting the lead to 52-48 with 10:11 remaining.

The lead was back up to 59-52 when the Eagles scored again on 3-pointer by Kerri Shields. But after a steal by Peters, Gray hit her short jumper that opened a six-point advantage and started her late-game surge.

The 6-foot-3 Williams dominated inside early with layups on seven of Duke's first 10 shots. But BC clogged the middle after that and held her to just four points the rest of the way.

That opened up the perimeter, though, and Duke hit six of its seven 3-point shots in the second half.