Duke basketball finally got a win in the Commonwealth of Virginia Sunday afternoon when the Duke women outlasted Virginia 56-52.
As the score suggests, Duke relied on a familiar formula, a rock-ribbed defense, depth and rebounding to overcome a shaky offense and some woeful foul shooting to post its 13th ACC win in sixteen tries. Duke remains tied with Notre Dame for first place in the conference and likely will not have to leave the state of North Carolina for a long time.
“A very difficult game,” Kara Lawson said. “I thought Virginia made things really hard for us. This is a hard league. Hard to win games.”
Virginia’s last lead was at 10-9. An 8-0 run gave Duke some separation and the first period ended 19-15 Blue Devils, suggestions of an offensive renaissance for Duke, perhaps.
But Duke reverted to form in the second period. Offensively, that meant a 14-point Duke quarter. But defensively it also meant a 12-point Virginia quarter.
Duke actually jumped on top 22-15 when Taya Corosdale knocked down a 3 on the first possession of the second quarter. But Duke went four minutes without scoring, letting Virginia back in the game at 22-21. Reigan Richardson scored five straight for Duke and the half ended with Duke up 33-27.
Duke had Virginia on the ropes in the third quarter after opening with a 9-2 run, 3-pointers by Celeste Taylor, Elizabeth Balogun and Vanessa de Jesus making it 42-29. But some careless turnovers, some bad fouls and the third period ended with Duke holding on to a tenuous 44-39 lead.
Duke’s fourth-quarter lead ranged from six at 47-41 after another Corosdale triple down to two at 47-45, Duke unable to put away Virginia, the Cavaliers unable to push the boulder all the way up the hill. Duke got stuck on 50 points for 4:10, Virginia got stuck on 47 for 2:51. Offensive ineptitude or defensive dominance. Call it what you want but the clock was ticking while all this was going on and Duke looked like they had put it away when Shayeann Day-Wilson hit a short jumper to make it 54-47, with 1:39 left.
But Celeste Taylor missed a foul shot, Duke had a five-second violation on an inbounds play--after a timeout, no less—and Virginia closed to 55.-52.
Taylor finally wrapped it up by making one of two from the line--she was two for six, Duke was two for nine, Jordyn Oliver missing the other three.
Yes, Duke only had two players go to the foul line.
“It would have made it a little less dramatic,” Lawson said of the missed foul shots.
So, not an aesthetic masterpiece. But an ACC road win is an ACC road win. And Duke did some things very well, holding Virginia to 33.9% shooting from the field. Excluding Taylor Valladay’s 8-13, Virginia was 11 for 43 from the field. That’s 25.6%.
Duke also outrebounded Virginia 35-32, a big deal considering Virginia was second in the ACC in rebounding differential going into the game. Taylor led everyone with 12 rebounds and eight assists, to go along with eight points. Balogun led Duke with 12 points, with Corosdale and Richardson adding 10 and 9.
17 assists? Two thumbs up.
18 turnovers? Not so much.
“Ball security, I can’t say has been a great strength of ours,” Lawson acknowledged. “It’s something we struggle with. We obviously try to work on it. I thought we tried to squeeze the ball into too tight a window and make home-run passes when we just needed to make the simple play.”
Valladay led everyone with 19 points.
Duke finishes at home with its Triangle rivals, NC State on Thursday, North Carolina on Sunday. Two wins would guarantee no worse than a share of the ACC regular-season title and top seed in the ACC Tournament. And that 23-4 overall record should look pretty good to the selection committee but a little burnishing wouldn’t hurt at all.