SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Poised. Confident. Relaxed.

Duke coach Gail Goestenkors used all three of those words in her opening statement after her team's 81-69 victory over Georgia in the national semifinals Friday night. Georgia coach Andy Landers used none of them, and therein lies a big reason that the Blue Devils (29-6) are advancing to their first national title game and the Lady Bulldogs (27-7) are heading home.

The Blue Devils advance to meet Purdue, which beat Louisiana Tech 77-63 Friday night, in the championship game on Sunday night.

With methodical precision, a very experienced Duke team did exactly what it wanted to do Friday, pounding it inside to 6-foot-6 center Michele VanGorp, then slinging it back outside to shooters Nicole Erickson and Georgia Schweitzer -- all of whom seemed to hit every shot they were given.

''It's almost as if you choose your poison,'' Landers said of Duke's inside-outside game.

Defensively, the Blue Devils kept the Miller twins under control and stopped Georgia's transition game, limiting the free baskets the Lady Bulldogs need when their half-court offense gets bogged down, which is somewhat frequently.

In short, every positive that carried Georgia this far fell by the wayside against a Duke team with its eyes firmly set on a national championship. It was far from the worst game the Lady Bulldogs have played this year -- ''I was pleased with our team's performance,'' said Landers -- but it was far from enough to get the job done on the national stage.

From the beginning, the Lady Bulldogs fell in a hole, dropping behind by 10 points. Then came the rally, and both teams traded jabs throughout the first half.

But an unsettling pattern developed for the Lady Bulldogs: more and more, Duke's guards were left open for 3-pointers, and they made them. To go along with that, the Blue Devils kept getting to the free-throw line, a place rarely visited by the Lady Bulldogs all evening. Duke took a 40-34 lead into the locker room, and the Lady Bulldogs simply failed to do anything about that edge in the most important moments of the game -- the opening minutes of the second half. Duke's advantage mushroomed to 15 points within the first five minutes of the second half, and Georgia could only watch, shell-shocked.

''The reason we couldn't change the momentum of the game was because we couldn't get to the ball defensively to deflect and run to get ourselves excited offensively,'' said Landers. ''You know, when you have a team that can shoot the ball as well as they do...they didn't miss a lot of shots.''

Duke ended up hitting 50.9 percent for the game, with VanGorp and Erickson leading the way. The inside player finished with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting, while the Blue Devils' long-range threat, Erickson, finished with 22 points to lead all scorers.

Add those number to only 11 turnovers and a 16 of 21 day at the free-throw line (to Georgia's 5 of 10), and the Blue Devils were in good shape.

''It's hard for them to run when you score, and we were very patient on offense,'' said Goestenkors. ''When you take care of the ball, which we did, and we score our baskets, it takes away the transition game.''

That it did. The Lady Bulldogs had but a handful of true fastbreak opportunities, and pressed the Blue Devils only when the gap became unmanageable late in the contest. Georgia held its own on offense in the first half, making 53.3 percent of its attempts from the floor, but seven turnovers didn't help matters. In the second half, that trend reversed; the Lady Bulldogs turned the ball over only twice, but also saw their shooting percentage slip to 36.8.

Coco Miller ended up leading the team with 18 points, while Tawana McDonald added 14, Kelly Miller 13 and Deana Nolan 12.

Several times, Georgia showed signs of life, but there was never enough of a sustained effort to slow down the team that could do no wrong.

''We didn't fold,'' said Landers. ''We made a couple of runs there and we couldn't get back into it. Some of that might be to our discredit, but some of it -- a lot of it, certainly -- is to Duke's credit, as they kept their poise and continued to do the things that Duke likes to do.''

And first on that list, at the moment, is playing for the national championship.