Michigan women's basketball team falls to No. 12 Duke, 60-45

DURHAM, N.C. -- The University of Michigan women's basketball team posted 20 steals and forced Duke (No. 12 AP/No. 14 ESPN/USA Today) into 30 turnovers but could not manage to pick up the win, falling 60-45 this afternoon (Sunday, Dec. 7) at Cameron Indoor Stadium.   Sophomore Veronica Hicks (Chicago, Ill./Thornwood) had a career night with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the floor while picking up four steals and four assists. As a team, Michigan had season-high 20 steals. Late in the second half, Hicks used a runner in the lane and a triple to cut the U-M deficit to 10 points and a basket underneath by senior Melinda Queen (Oak Forest, Ill./Carl Sandburg), who ended the game with 10 points, made it 40-32. Freshman Carmen Reynolds (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), who played a key role off the bench, had four consecutive points to keep the Maize and Blue in the game, but Duke used free throws to extend its lead to 50-39, and although Michigan was able to cut the lead to eight points, it could not get it any closer as Duke picked up its fourth consecutive win.   Duke opened the second half with a 15-2 run, which turned a four-point halftime lead into the first a double-digit lead of the game with only six minutes off the second-half game clock. The Blue Devils forced Michigan into a nearly four-minute scoring drought, which allowed the lead to swell to more than 10 points before Michigan began to chip away at the lead. To read more please click here.