Duke women end season with loss to Connecticut
Defense and late comeback not enough to overcome slow start
Time finally ran out on Kara Lawson’s comeback kids. Connecticut ended Duke’s season with a wire-to-wire 53-45 win Saturday night in Portland.
Duke sure made it interesting down the stretch, cutting a 20-point UConn lead to five points, twice with Duke’s ball and a chance to make it a one-possession game against a tired Huskies team and enough time to pull off the upset.
But Duke found itself in that 20-point hole after almost three quarters of excruciatingly bad offense, turnovers, missed layups, missed jumpers, what-was-she-thinking moments, one stacking up after another after another.
“I thought UConn did a great job of executing defensively what they wanted to do,” Kara Lawson admitted. “We struggled to score the ball all night.”
Yep.
Duke’s defense kept them in the game, a faint pulse but a pulse nonetheless. But horseshoes and hand grenades and all that.
Turnovers have plagued this team all season and it was not a good sign when Duke turned it over four times in its first six possessions. When Duke did get a shot, it did not go in.
“I feel like UConn did a great job with disrupting us,” Reigan Richardson said. “We did have a lot of turnovers. It's something that we've been trying to work on the whole season. I mean, at the end of the day, UConn executed their game plan very well, and they came out with the win.”
Connecticut wasn’t much better on offense. But enough better to slowly build its lead.
It was 10-6 Huskies after one quarter. These teams were playing good defense. But nobody’s defense is that good.
It got worse for Duke. The Blue Devils didn’t score in the second quarter for over five minutes. Oluchi Okananwa made it 15-8 but Duke had some more empty possessions and fell behind 21-8.
The half ended with Duke trailing 23-13 after Ashlon Jackson gave Duke some hope with a late 3-pointer.
Big Mo didn’t last long. Richardson knocked down a jumper to make it 23-15. But Connecticut responded with a 10-2 run.
It was 42-22 before Camilla Emsbo scored inside and Taina Mair hit a 3.
It was 42-27 after three.
Duke left it all on the floor in the final quarter. But they just waited too long to find stuff that worked. It was 48-33 with just over six minutes left and Duke didn’t get the deficit into single digits until a Richardson jumper made it 48-40, with 2:29 left.
Had Duke not gotten stuck on 38 points for over two minutes, who knows. There was one possession where Duke missed three shots, Kennedy Brown blocked twice and Okananwa missing a short jumper.
Duke’s defense kept giving them chances. Connecticut went over five minutes without a point against Duke’s furious defensive effort. Duke had the ball down 48-43 and 50-45 but came up empty both times. Paige Bueckers made three foul shots in the final 20 seconds and that was a wrap.
It’s hard to say that Duke deserved to win, given their offensive woes. Even with an 18-point final quarter Duke ended with 23 turnovers, 4 for 19 on 3-pointers (21%), 32% shooting overall. UConn had 14 steals and a 23-6 advantage on points off turnovers.
Duke did out-rebound Connecticut 43-28 but couldn’t capitalize on it.
Duke made Bueckers work for her 24 points, 9 for 21 from the field. But she had five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Okananwa led Duke with 15 points and added six rebounds. But those seven turnovers hurt. Richardson missed all five of her 3-pointers and ended with 10 points. Brown led everyone with 10 rebounds but missed eight of her 10 field goal attempts.
So, a 22-12 season, a Sweet Sixteen appearance in a rebuilding season. Brown and Emsbo are the only players not eligible to return next season. But given the realities of college basketball these days, who knows.
Richardson certainly seems ready to move onto next season.
“I feel like going into next year, I'm super pumped, super confident. I'm just ready to get into the gym as soon as I can. If it's -- probably not tomorrow but, like, maybe, like, a week or so.”
But that’s another discussion for another day. This one stings because it seemed like the fruit was ripe for picking and Duke didn’t pick it. But if the final image of this season is a plucky group of youngsters fighting to the very end to overcome their early lapses, well there are worse ways to say goodbye.
“I'm just really proud of them, proud of the season we've had and all the growth we've had,” Lawson said. “It's been amazing to coach this group. And I'm just really lucky to be able to be with them every day. It's been a joy and just fortunate to be at Duke and get the chance to coach our whole team.”
Our defense has been great all season, but the offense has likewise been a mess all year, plagued by unforced turnovers, no apparent offensive scheme and an inability to finish those 2-4 foot bunnies. Certainly an overall successful season, but no where near their ceiling. Hopefully the offseason will focus on those areas..
Excruciating offense, I’ve seen more coherent schemes at midnight pickup games at The Bubble back in the day. Doing better than embarrassing on the national stage is not too much to ask.