Duke women in sole possession of first place
Devils hold ninth-ranked Notre Dame to six points in fourth quarter
The Duke women’s basketball team overcame a six-point halftime deficit to defeat Notre Dame 57-52 Sunday afternoon. The win--Duke’s first ever at South Bend--leaves the Blue Devils atop the ACC at 10-2, while dropping the Irish to 9-3.
The win leaves Duke at 20-3, the program’s first 20 win season since the 2017-’18 team went 24-9 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
Not surprisingly Celeste Taylor led Duke, 14 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 2 of Duke’s four 3-pointers. She also had 5 turnovers, however.
Duke took the lead with a 23-point third-quarter and held on with a rock-ribbed defensive effort in the final quarter.
Duke scored the first four points and the teams traded baskets and leads into the middle of the second period, when the home team began to get some separation. Duke couldn’t hit anything from outside--0 for 6 on 3s in the first half--and Notre Dame dominated the glass. A Sonia Citron triple put the Irish up 26-21 and a Maddy Westbeld layup made it 31-23.
But Mia Heide hit a big layup and Duke got stops on Notre Dame’s last two possessions. The half ended with Duke trailing 31-25, still in the game after dodging some potential knockout blows.
The second half was just weird. The two teams combined for 38 points in the third period, 15 in the fourth.
Elizabeth Balogun and then Taylor hit Duke’s first two three-pointers in the first three minutes of the third. But Duke wasn’t getting any stops and couldn’t quite catch up. Notre Dame still led 42-37 with 3:52 left in the third.
Then for one crucial stretch Duke’s offense and defense were both working. Taylor hit another 3-pointer to cut the Irish lead to two, at 42-40. Then Taya Corosdale scored five points to put Duke up 48-44, before Citron made it 48-46 at the third period buzzer.
Duke closed the third on an 11-4 run.
Kara Lawson said one of the keys to the big third quarter was finishing in transition.
“In the first half we felt like we were leaving some meat on the bones.”
Then the lids closed on the baskets, both of them. A Shayeann Day-Wilson free throw made it 51-49 Duke and the score didn’t change for over four agonizing minutes, as the two teams combined to miss 12 consecutive field goal attempts, with a couple of turnovers thrown in for good measure.
Balogun finally ended the drought with a jumper and Duke led 53-49, with just under four minutes left.
Olivia Miles hit a 3, Notre Dame’s first points in 5:34 and the tension ramped up to an almost unbearable level.
But it was the visiting team that made the plays, a big layup by Jordyn Oliver, a block by Balogun, a steal by Reigan Richardson and two foul shots by Balogun to close the scoring.
Notre Dame scored six points in the final period, that 3-pointer by Miles their only points in the final 8:40. In fact, Miles was the only Notre Dame player to score in the fourth period.
“We talk about staying disciplined defensively,” Lawson said,” and make it hard. I thought we challenged shots.”
Lawson said “my brain hurts” after the game, a comment I’m not sure I’ve ever heard from a winning coach. But she added “we made enough plays to win” and that’s pretty much the name of the game.
Taylor was Duke’s only double-figure scorer but Balogun and Day-Wilson added nine each and Oliver gave Duke a big eight points off the bench.
Despite sitting out much of the first half with two fouls Miles gave Notre Dame 11 points. Westbeld and Citron led the Irish with 15 and 14 points respectively but the rest of the team could muster only a dozen points. Both teams shot 40 percent from the field. But after losing the battle of the boards 12-5 in the first period, Duke ended up with 37 rebounds to Notre Dame’s 33.
Duke made one more 3-pointer, two more foul shots and that was the difference.
Duke visits Boston College Thursday before coming back home to host Miami on Super Bowl Sunday, an ACC regular-season title ready to be seized.