Big weekend for Duke women's hoops

Another title for Duke

The Duke women’s basketball team beat every ACC rival this regular season except Louisville, Notre Dame and NC State. Duke also lost to North Carolina but gained a split, each team winning at home.

As fate would have it the ACC Tournament bracket played out in such a way that Duke had a chance to play all three of those teams.

Call it Kara Lawson’s Greensboro payback tour.

Duke checked all three boxes, in winning the program’s first ACC title since 2013.

Louisville was the first, the only team to beat Duke in Cameron this season.

Louisville defeated Clemson in overtime to advance to the quarterfinals against Duke. The Cardinals played without their leading scorer, Jayda Curry, out with a shoulder injury. Curry scored 24 against Duke in Cameron and her absence was a significant one.

Duke’s 61-48 win wasn’t totally stress free. Louisville did have a second-half run that cut Duke’s lead from 22 points to eight, at 45-37. But following a Duke timeout, Ooluchi Okananwa hit a layup and the threat went away.

Duke won this on the defensive end, forcing 21 turnovers and holding Louisville to 31.6% shooting.

Okananwa led Duke with 13 points, followed by Reigan Richardson’s 12 and Toby Fournier’s 10 points and eight rebounds.

“We started the game off so well defensively,” Lawson said. “I thought the first half was a great defensive effort by us, and then they made a run. That's what good teams do. I was really proud of how we settled ourselves back down.”

Okananwa denied even a hint of revenge,

“I would just say kind of starting postseason, it's like a clean slate now. We're addressing every single game that we play with the same intensity, the same competitive spirit.”

The win advanced Duke to the semifinals against Notre Dame, a team ranked number one nationally just a few weeks ago. The Irish handled Duke 64-49 in their only regular-season meeting but that one was in South Bend.

Notre Dame is led by sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo, the ACC Player of the Year and likely first-team All-American.

She’s also the ACC’s defensive player of the year.

To no one’s surprise, this was a no-quarters asked, non-given defensive struggle.

Notre Dame led 17-16 after one, 31-29 at the half.

The first time these teams met it was close at the half but Notre Dame blew it open in the third.

It was Duke’s turn this time. Duke used a 9-2 run to take the lead, fell behind 42-41 but closed the third with a 6-0 run. Duke led 47-42, after holding one of the nation’s most explosive offenses to 11 points in the third period.

Okananwa hit a triple to make it 50-42. Duke went cold but Notre Dame was unable to get closer than four. Duke had a five-minute span with just four points but Notre Dame went nine minutes with only seven points.

An Okananwa layup put Duke’s lead back up to six and Duke closed it out from the line.

Hidalgo led everyone with 23 points and added six steals. But she didn’t get much help. Starting forwards Maddy Westbeld and Liatu King combined for 44 scoreless minutes, while Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron each hit 3 of 9 from the field.

In other words Notre Dame’s four starters other than Hidalgo made 6 of 24 from the field.

Okananwa (14), Ashlon Jackson (12) and Delaney Thomas (eight) led Duke in scoring, with Okananwa and Thomas each grabbing seven boards.

Duke turned it over 21 times but had a decisive 38-26 advantage on the boards.

Lawson summed up the keys to victory.

“I thought our team stayed really disciplined defensively. I thought we executed what we were trying to do, keep them out of transition as much as we could and limit their opportunities on the glass.

“They just made big plays late,” she added of her team.

Two down, one to go.

NC State has lived in the ACC Tournament title game for the last few years and they played in last season’s Final Four.

Maybe that edge in big-game experience helped them early but whatever the reason, they had Duke on the ropes. The Pack scored the first seven points and led 19-10 after one and extended the lead to 14, at 24-10. But Duke held together and closed the half on an 11-5 run to make it 36-29 at the half.

“We knew it wasn't going to be easy,” Jackson said of that big, early deficit. “We knew it wasn't just going to come to us, so we just had to chip away little by little and just bring the energy on both sides of the ball. NC State is a very great team, and we knew they were going to go on runs and they were going to be there. All we had to do was focus on us and be us.”

Duke dominated the third quarter. Thomas and Jackson scored the first four points of the second half and Duke tied it at 42-42 on a Richardson jumper. Taina Mair gave Duke its first lead at 44-42 and Duke closed the period on a 7-0 run to break a 46-46 tie.

“It was very important,” Lawson said of that third quarter. “It's something we emphasized with the group. We needed to come out and play our brand of basketball, and I thought Oluchi in particular, we made the decision to start her in the third quarter because I thought she had just impacted the game at a really high level on both ends for us in the first half and felt like we needed her impact at the start of that that quarter.

“It snowballed on us pretty fast,” State coach Wes Moore said of that decisive span. “They came out ready to play and got after us. At some point, all the cute scheming and all that doesn’t matter. At some point it’s all about competing.”

A 3-pointer by Okananwa made it 56-46 to start the fourth. The Wolfpack closed to 58-53 on a Saniya Rovers triple but Richardson answered and it was 61-53, with 6:58 left. Every time State tried to get back in it, Duke was converting an offensive rebound or a transition basket.

The final was 76-62. Okananwa and Jackson led Duke with 22 points. Okananwa added 10 rebounds and four assists. Richardson had nine points and four assists, Jadyn Donovan eight rebounds and two blocks.

Keep in mind that Okananwa is a 5-10 guard. But she can rebound.

“That's something that my teammates expect of me, my coaches expect of me, so I'm always going to bring that.”

Duke outrebounded State 44-28 and held State star Aziah James to seven for 21 from the field and yes, James played much of the game after picking herself up after a nasty fall.

Okananwa was named the tournament’s top player and was joined by Jackson on the first team.

So, now we wait. Since losing to Louisville at home Duke has won six straight to go to 26-7. Duke will be hosting that first weekend and may well have played itself into a two seed. Lawson says Duke will play whatever team shows up on the other end of the court and Duke didn’t get to the second weekend two years ago when they hosted.

But this team seems made of sterner stuff. I had pegged next season as the first time Duke might have a legit chance at a Final Four but after this weekend I might have to rethink that.

And, yes, new banners are always nice.