The Duke women ended a two-game losing streak with a 93-45 win over cross-town opponent North Carolina Central Sunday afternoon.
When Duke’s energy and effort were on point, the Devils were an unstoppable machine.
But energy, effort and as a result execution were sporadic.
And let’s be honest. Human nature is a thing. Despite all the cliches about giving 110 percent all the time it’s hard to stay totally focused when you jump to a 30-4 lead.
And Duke did lose its focus, ending the game with 22 turnovers, an unacceptable total against an over-matched MEAC opponent that kept scrapping and digging.
Duke started by scoring the game’s first 18 points and it only took Duke 4:17 to do that.
Duke did all this without sophomore guard Ashlon Jackson, who did not dress out.
The official explanation for her absence.
Kara Lawson. “She’s fine. Just precautionary. Hopefully, she’ll be back on Thursday.”
It was 32-10 after one and the lead kept growing. Central only scored six points in the second period and it was 52-16 at the half.
But a clearly vexed Lawson did call a timeout after a 4-0 Central run made it 30-8 in the first and it was easy to see that she was in more of a teaching mode than a coach usually is in a blow-out win.
“I thought it was a pretty uneven performance. I thought they did a pretty good job of turning us over. We’re a young team and a team that’s trying to string together quality possessions, enough of them in a row to be able to be good. Right now, we’ll play a good possession and a bad possession and to be a good team you’ve got to be able to play like seven or eight possessions really good.”
She was most concerned with a stretch early in the third in which Central outscored Duke 10-4, with some turnovers and poor transition defense contributing to the malaise.
“They had a stretch there in the third quarter where I think we gave up 11 points in the first five minutes of the quarter and I called timeout because I obviously wasn’t happy with our defense, our attention to detail.”
There certainly were some bright spots. Freshman forward Delaney Thomas wasn’t immune from the turnover issues; she had four in 23 minutes. But she also had the first of what promises to be many double-doubles, with 10 points and 13 rebounds. She added three assists and three blocks.
“There’s going to be highs and lows in every game we play,” she said. “But it relies on the players to bring that energy and enthusiasm, to bring that effort and work ethic.”
Reigan Richardson recovered from her 0-10 performance at Stanford by leading everyone with 22 points, hitting 7 of 12 from the field and 8 of 10 from the line.
“When you struggle from the field, the next game, to see the ball go through is a good feeling,” Lawson said. “I thought getting to the line helped her with her rhythm. She’s a a player who can score in bunches and we need her scoring.”
Taina Mair added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists, Emma Koabel 13 points, Camilla Emsbo 13 points and seven rebounds. And Duke did out-rebound Central 56-36, with six players grabbing at least five boards.
Duke is in a weird stretch of the season, trading home games and road games, with a holiday break thrown in and exams looming.
Lawson said it’s not so much where Duke plays a team but who they’re playing, starting with a road game at Georgia this Thursday and potent South Carolina in Cameron next Sunday.
“We’re in it now. These games, you can expect a certain level of physicality, a certain level of competitiveness. And if you don’t match it then you will not win, you will not have a chance to win. That’s what we’re trying to get our group to understand.”