Georgia will face Duke in Saturday’s regional semifinal in Chattanooga. The Blue Devils held off a tough Boston College team 70-65 Tuesday night to advance. All-American Monique Currie had 21 points, and center Alison Bales added 16 and was clutch down the stretch. The game time for Duke-Georgia has not been set – it will be either noon or ~2:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Duke has ended Georgia’s season twice in recent years, so it’s time to settle the score. In 1999, Georgia advanced to their most recent Final Four before falling to Duke and All-American center Michelle Van Gorp 69-81. In 2003, the two teams met again in the regional semifinals. Duke, the #1 seed, was heavily favored, but Georgia took them to the wire before falling 63-66. Ebony Felder’s courageous performance in that 2003 Duke game nearly gave the Lady Dogs the edge they needed for a huge upset. The “Miracle Workers” team of 2002-2003 also played that Duke game without starting guard Sherill Baker who injured her shoulder in the previous game against Rutgers.

In the other half of the Chattanooga regional, LSU advanced as expected, but the story is the Cinderella run of Liberty. The 13th-seeded Liberty club has sent two good teams home in Penn State and DePaul. They are led by 6′8″ center Katie Feenstra. Georgia fans will remember that Liberty was Georgia’s first-round opponent a year ago, and the Lady Dogs were able to pull away for a convincing 78-53 win.

The SEC has performed well. Though they sent an unusually-low five teams to the tournament, only one – Mississippi in a narrow loss to George Washington – has been eliminated. The four remaining SEC teams – Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt – make up 25% of the Sweet 16. In the next round, Georgia plays Duke in Chattanooga, LSU plays Liberty in Chattanooga, Tennessee plays Texas Tech in Philadelphia, and Vanderbilt faces Michigan State in Kansas City.