The Duke women’s basketball team easily handled Pittsburgh Thursday, 69-38.
Duke jumped to a 14-3 lead after one period and never let the home-standing Panthers back into the game.
In some respects this was a high-risk, low-reward game. Pitt isn’t very good and that’s being charitable. The loss dropped them to 7-15. A win didn’t move Duke’s NCAA needle very much but a loss would have been catastrophic.
But the game did give Duke a chance to iron out some of its road-wrinkles. Kara Lawson said earlier this week via ZOOM that her team hasn’t been shooting as well on the road, isn’t moving without the ball as well, simply isn’t finding its offensive rhythm on the road.
Duke is undefeated at home in ACC play but this was only the second road win; the first was 60-56 over Virginia.
Now, 69 points may not seem like an offensive explosion. But it’s the most points Duke has scored in any ACC road contest this season and the most against anybody on the road since beating Georgia 72-65 in overtime in the ACC-SEC Challenge.
But that was an overtime game and Duke only had 55 points at the end of regulation.
Duke scored 71 points in regulation at Stanford before falling in overtime.
In that context, 69 points is a lot.
Duke jumped to a 5-0 lead but only led 5-3 when they went on an 11-0 run spanning the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. Three-pointers by Emma Koabel and Taina Mair jump-started the run.
The home team closed to 23-15 on a Liatu King jumper but Duke answered with an 8-0 run, holding Pitt scoreless for almost six minutes.
It was 31-18 at the half.
King is a 6-0 senior who came into the contest averaging 19.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. She had to have a huge game for Pitt to have any chance of springing the upset. But Duke held her to 16 points and eight rebounds, with four turnovers, King shot 7 for 14 from the field, 2 for 5 from the line.
No one else for Pitt scored more than six points.
It was 47-29 after three and Duke continued to pour it on down the stretch, even with reserves in the game.
Reigan Richardson led Duke with 17 points, followed by Kennedy Brown with 13 and Jadyn Donovan with 10. Oluchi Okananwa and Koabel came off the bench to add eight points each.
Duke had 17 turnovers--the problem that won’t go away. But they also had 17 assists, forced 19 turnovers, shot 49 percent from the field and 74 percent from the line, while outrebounding Pitt 38-22.
Brown led Duke with seven rebounds.
The win moves Duke to 14-7 overall, 6-4 ACC. The Blue Devils host Wake Forest next Thursday before a murder’s row of North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Syracuse and NC State, before Senior Day against Virginia and ending with a rematch in Chapel Hill.