The Duke women’s basketball team ended a two-game home-stand with a hard-fought 66-55 win over Virginia Tech Thursday night to keep their home record unblemished.
The win moved Duke to 8-1 ACC, 18-2 in the ACC, while dropping the Hokies to 6-4 and 16-4.
Duke’s defense locked down Tech’s two star players, holding Elizabeth Kitley to 1 for 9 shooting (4 points) and Georgia Amoore to 2 for 12 from the field (7 points). The Blue Devils outrebounded Tech 37-29, hit 18 of 21 from the line and got major contributions from reserves Vanessa de Jesus, Mia Heide and Taya Corosdale.
Duke never trailed in the opening half. Duke jumped to a 7-0 lead, a 3-pointer by Shayeann Day-Wilson sandwiched by two-pointers by Reigan Richardson and Kennedy Brown, the latter off a nifty pass by Celeste Taylor.
But Elizabeth Balogun picked up two fouls in just over five minutes.
As it has most of the season, Duke’s bench was up to the challenge. Corosdale, a 6-3 transfer from Oregon State grabbed four first-half rebounds, while de Jesus scored seven points in two first-period minutes and Heide helped neutralize Kitley.
“I told the team after the game that I thought Taya and Mia were unbelievable,” Kara Lawson said. “E [Balogun] picks up two fouls in the first half, early and that’s probably my bad. I didn’t get her out after the first one. And then you’re kind of staring at 15 minutes of game time without Balogun and Taya just came in and did a great job offensively and defensively.”
Duke led 23-17 after one period, with Day-Wilson (10 points) and de Jesus (7) giving Duke 17 points from the point-guard position.
Duke and Virginia Tech are too good defensively to sustain that kind of offensive production and the game settled down into the expected half-court slug-fest.
Duke had a nine-point lead and the ball at 26-17 and 30-21 but couldn’t build on it either time. Some bad turnovers late in the half fueled a Tech run and Duke went into the locker room with a precarious 34-32 lead.
“We gave up too many 3s (5-9),” Lawson said of the first half. “It seemed like every time we made a mistake, they made us pay. That’s what good teams do.”
Duke turned it over three times in the final 93 seconds and went the final 2:52 without a point.
Duke continued to keep Kitley in check but Duke’s offense went MIA for most of the third period. The Blue Devils scored only three points in the first 7:38 of the second half and fell behind 40-37, Tech not being especially productive on offense either.
Still, momentum seemed to favor the visitors and the game seemed close to slipping away. But Richardson scored inside and then Heide scored right before the buzzer and Duke was back on top, 41-40 as the third period ended.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Heide said, “and you’ve got to be able to play through them. VT went on a run and we knew we had to respond so I think having confidence in our offense and the way we play and getting the shots we want.”
Duke kept its nose ahead of Tech throughout the fourth quarter.
“I thought in the second half defensively we were able to take away more of their open looks,” Lawson said. “They only made two 3s in the second half. We just had to grind it out. We battled and we made enough tough plays in that fourth quarter to get some separation.”
An old-fashioned 3-point play by Heide put Duke up 46-42.
“Mia was playing so well I didn’t want to take her out,” Lawson said. “I thought Mia was physical, I thought she was defending her butt off, she gave us a little bit of an offensive spark; that and-one late was huge.”
Duke kept VT at 46 points for over four minutes, extending a 48-46 lead to 58-46, effectively putting the game away.
Tech coach Kenny Brooks made no attempt to hide his view that Kitley’s subpar scoring performance--she came into the contest averaging almost 19 points per game--was a result of the officials allowing too much contact. And Heide said that Duke’s game plan included being physical with Kitley.
But at one point Duke had been called for 16 fouls to VT’s eight and until the Hokies fouled Duke four times in the final minute in an attempt to extend the game the foul count read Duke 22, Virginia Tech 13.
So, there’s that.
Lawson said Duke just tried to perform such defensive basics on Kitley as making it difficult for her to catch the ball where she wanted it and made her shoot with a hand in her face, while keeping Amoore from turning the corner off her dribble.
Day-Wilson again led Duke in scoring, with 18 points. She has 58 points in Duke’s last three games. Vanessa de Jesus was Duke’s only other double-figure scorer, with 10 points. Balogun scored all nine of her points in the second half and Taylor added eight.
Six Devils had between three and six rebounds, Balogun leading with six.
Tech’s Taylor Soule led everyone with 19 points, while Kitley had 13 rebounds.
Five of Duke’s next seven games are on the road, starting with Sunday at Florida State.
Lawson says the keys to running this gauntlet are to keep building and keep learning.
“It’s going to take contributions from everybody. We need all 10 of our players to be able to be difference makers on given nights. I think that depth and togetherness can help us win games on the road.”
Orin, the old days when the ACC was considered a "finesse" league are long gone. Every game is a street fight and after awhile Kenny Brooks tried to clarify that his comments applied not just to the Duke game but the entire ACC season. And I get it. Kitley is one of the most skilled post players in the country and the less impeded she is, the more effective she'll be.
But every time Celeste Taylor tried to move she was held, bumped, hip-checked off her line and that wasn't called either. It seems like every preseason we hear that the NCAA will insure freedom of movement on offense but after. few weeks it's back to Sharks v. Jets.
And Duke has a deep, physical team maximized to benefit from that. If Lawson is ahead of the curve on that, well credit to her.
I inadvertently reference Tech coach Kenny Brooks as Kenny Moore. I've corrected it. That's what I get for writing at midnight. Mea culpa and apologies to a coach I respect very much.
Kenny Moore, btw, was an American marathoner back in the day.