racer and made me who I am on the bike is the fact that I started late, Stev

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke wants to show it once again belongs among the elite teams in womens basketball. Beating No. 3 South Carolina is a good way to prove it.Rebecca Greenwell scored seven of her 29 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes, leading the Blue Devils past the Gamecocks 74-63 on Sunday.I think it shows we can play with anyone out there, Greenwell said. We knew that from the beginning of the season, but now its just showing it to others.Oderah Chidom added 15 points to help the Blue Devils (9-1) earn their first victory over a top-three opponent since they knocked off No. 3 Ohio State in 2009.I wanted to make a statement, Chidom said, and South Carolinas a great team to do it against.Duke shot 50 percent and forced the Gamecocks (6-1) into a season-worst 19 turnovers, turning them into 28 points.Coach Dawn Staley said her team played undisciplined basketball.We wanted to stay really close to Greenwell, because we know what shes capable of, Staley said. And obviously, she made us pay.Aja Wilson scored 18 points and Kaela Davis added 14 for South Carolina, which pulled to 66-60 on Bianca Cuevas-Moores 3-pointer with 1:41 left and immediately called timeout.But the Gamecocks came out of that break and put six players on the court, earning them a technical foul. Greenwell hit two free throws with 1:40 remaining, and after Duke forced a stop, Kyra Lambert added two foul shots to push the Blue Devils lead to 70-60 with 1:05 remaining.BIG PICTURESouth Carolina: The Gamecocks have plenty to work on after this -- starting with ball security. They lead the nation with averages of 21 free throws made and 30 of them attempted, but got to the line only 14 times in this one, making nine. Staley says all of her teams problems can be corrected by simply tightening things up at the defensive end. The only team to score more against her Gamecocks was Ohio State in a 92-80 loss in the opener on Nov. 14.I think if we can fix our defense, Staley said, the turnovers will help themselves.Duke: This was the kind of victory the Blue Devils needed as they try to climb back into the national rankings after some stumbles last season knocked them out of the polls. The Blue Devils had lost eight straight games against Top 25 opponents since they beat No. 12 Mississippi State two years ago in the NCAA Tournament.POLL IMPLICATIONSThis loss figures to send South Carolina dropping a few spots. As for Duke, it looked like the kind of victory that could earn the Blue Devils their first national ranking since midway through last season.KEY STATDuke outscored South Carolinas celebrated front line 42-32 in the paint. Said Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie: Thats a 10-point difference in our favor, and thats the game.WELCOME BACKSouth Carolinas Allisha Gray scored 11 points in her return to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Gray played for rival North Carolina for two seasons, scoring 24 points here in a win in 2014 and 20 in a loss the following year before transferring from the Tar Heels.UP NEXTSouth Carolina: The Gamecocks return home and have a week off before playing host to Minnesota on Dec. 11.Duke: The Blue Devils on Thursday night play host to an Elon team in a matchup that pits mother against daughter: Elon guard Maddie McCallie is the daughter of Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie.---Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. Clearance Ray Ban Sunglasses . I cant pinpoint a date, but I do remember a player from my youth. 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Evelyn Stevens burst into professional cycling with an irresistible backstory, an ideal engine for endurance and -- as she was always quick to mention -- the very rawest of bike-handling skills.?Shell end her career seven years later at the world championships tucked into the precise formation of one of the sports top teams in its most technical event.?Stevens, 33, never could have imagined the topography of the path from her former desk on Wall Street to Sundays team time trial in Doha, Qatar.?Hooked after entering a cyclocross race on a whim, Stevens signed up for a road cycling clinic in New Yorks Central Park in 2008. The following year, she quit her job in investment banking, sold or gave away most of her possessions and began pedaling toward parts unknown.?She signed her first pro contract before the 2010 season and learned racing from the ground up, sometimes literally. Along the way, she carved out an identity as one of the most versatile riders in the peloton: a time trialist and climber as well as an intrepid super-domestique who helped other riders close out victories.I rode for the best teams, with the best women and the best equipment, Stevens said from Nice, France, where she was training for worlds last week. Theres no event that I didnt do that I wanted to do. I didnt accomplish all of my goals, but I got the chance to go after them.?A two-time U.S. individual time trial champion and double world championship time trial medalist (silver in 2012, bronze in 2014), Stevens also won the prestigious La Fleche Wallonne one-day classic and several stage races around the world. But her distinction was as a rider who drew her own finish lines.?In 2014, frustrated by the arbitrary length restrictions on womens stage races, she devised her own Grand Tour, stringing together 17 consecutive race days in Europe starting with the womens Giro Rosa and continuing with Germanys Thüringen Rundfahrt, which she won.?Last February, Stevens set a new womens hour record -- covering 47.980 kilometers in the allotted time -- in Colorado Springs, an accomplishment that drew 50,000 viewers on a livestream. She still cant believe that many people wanted to watch her ride around in circles.?Looking back on it, it was insane I even thought to do that, she said. Im gonna go out and ride for an hour, close to 48k, have everybody watching me -- pretty much all you can do is fail. Now Im so proud of it, as I get farther away from it. Proud of the result, taking that risk, the experience, the people around me who helped me with it. Its a lovely process to get to these goals.?It was a process Stevens knew nothing about as a wide-eyed newbie whose only prior team experience was as a tenacious baseliner on the Dartmouth College tennis team. She was initially stunned that teams employed someone to fill her water bottles and do her laundry, but she got used to it.?Other adaptations came a lot harder. It took years for Stevens to feel comfortable in the tight quarters of the peloton. She forced herself to fight crosswinds and navigate wet roads, but bad-weather riding was never her strong suit. She refiined her descending skills by following young superstar Taylor Phinney on the roads around Boulder, Colorado -- part of the Phinney familys larger embrace that included mentorship and a second home.dddddddddddd?Stevens carved careful tracks down the ski slopes of her youth rather than schussing down at full speed. Much about road cycling remained a mental stretch for her naturally risk-averse personality. Every day I got on the bike, I was facing fears, she said.?Those fears came partially to fruition in March 2013, when Stevens crashed heavily on a traffic circle in a race in Italy. She suffered a concussion and required 40 stitches and some dental work to reconstruct one of the most contagious smiles in cycling.?Stevens had a quiet Olympics in Rio. She rode valiantly in support of Mara Abbotts heart-cracking fourth-place effort in the road race, but blustery conditions on the day of the time trial thwarted her quest for a medal in her second Summer Games.?She is leaving the sport with no regrets, including her late introduction to it. Stevens was comfortable in her own skin, if not always in the saddle, when she dedicated herself to cycling in her mid-20s. She knew she always had the safety net of a college education and work experience if things didnt work out.?Stevens success obviated the need for that exit strategy until now. Shes contemplating picking back up in the financial field, although she frets at the thought of a more sedentary lifestyle and already envisions fidgeting at a standing desk. Mostly, shes looking forward to more time in San Francisco with her husband of one year, Brett Baker, a program manager at Twitter.?I think what made me a successful bike racer and made me who I am on the bike is the fact that I started late, Stevens said. I had to really play catch-up. It made for some big struggles on the bike. Maybe if Id started when I was 15 years old I would have been more comfortable in the corners. But would I actually have gotten myself in that position??She automatically qualified for the road race in Doha, but declined the spot. Her farewell will come with the Netherlands-based Boels-Dolmans team in the team time trial, which is contested by trade teams rather than national squads. Stevens was a member of Specialized-lululemons three straight gold-medal lineups in the event from 2012 to 14 and would love to go out on another winning note with Boels-Dolmans, the 2015 TTT silver medalist.?Im prepping for the team time trial, but Ive stepped back and realized how intense that lifestyle can be, she said. I started to itch for something else, to try another challenge.?I know I could physically continue to compete at the top level for a lot more time. But I almost feel like Im getting comfortable and kinda have figured out how to do it, and thats when you need to go. I love riding my bicycle. Not one ounce of me is sick of riding my bike. Now, do I want to go with 200 women and [speed] down a small street in Holland? No. Im done. ' ' '