The Duke women never trailed in a 66-56 win over Clemson Thursday night. The win kept Duke undefeated in the ACC at 5-0, 15-1 overall, on a 10-game winning streak.
Doesn’t mean it was easy. Or pretty. Clemson may be more gifted in athleticism than skill but they had enough of the latter to beat Virginia Tech, so maybe I’m under-estimating them. But what we saw against Duke was a suffocating zone, a man-to-man press and enough physicality to knock Duke back in the first half.
“I think we were non-competitive in the first half,” Kara Lawson said “and that was very frustrating to see, but in the second half I thought we played with a little more fire. Clemson kept us off balance, obviously their zone and their trapping and we didn’t have a rhythm offensively most of the night.”
Celeste Taylor put Duke on top with a 3-pointer and Elizabeth Balogun scored in transition and it was 5-0, then 7-2. But Duke went scoreless for four minutes.
Clemson wasn’t much better, getting no closer than 7-5.
Duke got a boost off the bench from junior guard Vanessa de Jesus.
“I love V.” Lawson said. “V is so gosh darn competitive. I’m so confident in her and what she brings to our team. She can make shots, she can run our team and pass the ball, she guards, she’s a bulldog defensively, she knows our system.”
She also has a flair for the dramatic. She hit a 35-footer at the end of the first period to put Duke up 17-9.
“Time and score, knowing that is very important as a point guard,’ de Jesus said. “For me I always want to know that. When it’s time, if it’s me making a shot or looking for my teammate, I want to execute the right way.
But Duke couldn’t build on that seeming momentum-builder. Lawson sat Taylor and Balogun most of the second period, Taylor despite the fact that she had eight points in the first 14 minutes.
Lawson didn’t say so explicitly but I think her message to her team was “if I can sit Taylor, I can sit anyone.”
With its two leading scorers on the bench Duke’s offense went splat. The Tigers closed to 26-24 with 2:49 left in the half.
But Duke got three stops and de Jesus buried another 3 with a second left on the shot clock.
She was fouled on the shot but missed the freebie and a chance for a rare four-point play.
Duke got another stop and went into the locker room up 29-26.
On paper Duke had a pretty good first half on the defensive side of things. Clemson turned it over 10 times, went to the foul line one time--1 of 2-and hit only one 3-pointer.
But Lawson wanted more.
“Our defense was poor, and we need to be better on that end, and so we’ve just got a lot to work on on that end. We had some breakdowns and thankfully Kennedy [Brown] and Mia [Heide} were back there to save layups after guard after guard was getting beat off the dribble. We just have to be better one on one defensively if we expect to win more games in this league.”
It should be noted that Brown had five blocks, Heide one.
Lawson said she spent the halftime break exhorting her team to be tougher, while her assistants worked on Xs and Os.
Duke never did get the ball inside with any effectiveness but they began exploiting Clemson’s zone from downtown. Taylor, Shayeann Day-Wilson and Ashlon Jackson knocked down 3s in the first 2:20 of the second half and Duke was up 38-30. Balogun knocked down a pair of triples later in the half.
Clemson closed to four at 40-36 but Taylor answered with a bucket after an offensive rebound. At 42-38 de Jesus made two foul shots.
The third period ended with Duke up 53-44.
Duke held Clemson scoreless for almost five minutes beginning the final quarter and extended its lead to 58-44. Clemson never got closer than 63-56, Duke scored its final six points from the foul line and the game ended with another Blue Devil victory.
“They were very physical out of the gate,” de Jesus said “getting offensive rebounds. I think for us, our main goal is just working together and everybody doing their role. If everybody blocks out their person, everybody puts a body, it will be easy to get those rebounds. I think it's about working together and everybody doing their part, whatever that is. That is what I think we did too.”
Taylor led everyone with 19 points, with 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Day-Wilson scored 12, de Jesus 11. The teams were even on the boards at 33 apiece but Duke forced 20 turnovers, while committing 14. Clemson only had six assists. Duke hit 9 of 24 from beyond the arc, Clemson 3 of 10.
“I’m pleased we won,” Lawson summed up. “It’s just these games are hard and it’s just tough in this league.”
Duke hits the road for games at Georgia Tech this Sunday and UNC next Thursday.
I really enjoyed watching her press conference, to which you were party of course. So many times those pressers are nothing but coach speak, but she was visibly frustrated at the start, and blatantly honest about the performance, especially the first half. I like that she is tough on the women, but obviously cares very much for them, too. And she noted, "They want me to challenge them". That's a good attitude, and one that seems to working very well this year.