The ninth-ranked Duke women’s basketball team ran its record to 22-3 Sunday with a 50-40 win over Miami. The win keeps Duke undefeated at home and solidifies their hold on first place in the ACC at 12-2.
Forty points may seem like a pretty good defensive effort by Duke but it pales compared to what happened Thursday night in Chestnutt Hill, where Duke bludgeoned Boston College 68-27.
The Eagles scored 9, 5, 8 and 5 points in each of the four quarters. Now, BC isn’t an offensive juggernaut. But they beat Georgia Tech 74-62, NC State 79-71 and Florida State 77-71.
No one else has held them to fewer than 48 points. So, 27 points is well outside their norm.
Kara Lawson called it a “complete effort” on defense and that seems to be the understatement of the week.
On the other side of the ball sophomore guard Reigan Richardson led everyone with 14 points, her most points in a Duke uniform.
The win was the 1,000th in program history.
Miami figured to be a sterner test, especially coming off an 86-82 win over Florida State. Miami scored 27 points in the fourth quarter against FSU, the exact same number of points BC scored against Duke in four quarters.
But Duke’s defense was almost as dominant against the Hurricanes. Miami’s 3-point shooters got no room, Duke kept them out of transition opportunities and didn’t give up second-chance points to one of the league’s better offensive rebounding teams.
Duke led 15-7 after one period, 32-13 at the half.
Going back to the final period of last Sunday’s win at Notre Dame that meant Duke held three ACC opponents to seven consecutive single-digit scoring periods.
“I thought we were really disruptive on defense in the first half,” Lawson said, adding that Duke challenged almost every Miami shot.
Duke was not as sharp in the second half. Duke’s defense was still solid but the offense was pretty clunky, good ball-handling but not many shots finding the bottom of the net. Miami outscored Duke 16-12 in the third and 11-6 in the fourth.
But Duke still maintained a double-digit lead most of the final half. The closest Miami got after intermission was nine points, with a half-minute left. It was still a 13-point lead with 1:42 left. But a Richardson jumper with 7:27 left was Duke’s last made field goal and Duke better fix that pronto before what promises to be a street fight in Blacksburg Thursday night against a resurgent Virginia Tech team.
“The bottom fell out of our offense in the fourth quarter,” Lawson acknowledged.
Richardson again led Duke with 14 points, shooting 6 for 12, 2 for 3 from beyond the arc. She was 7 for 10 against Boston College.
Celeste Taylor added nine points.
Richardson said she’s been putting in extra work after practice, honing her shot.
“Just getting those extra reps in really helps my confidence.”
Duke also limited its turnovers to eight.
“I was really pleased with our ball security today,” Lawson said. “That really limited their transition opportunities.”
But best of all was that defense, which Lawson said may have been the best of the season in the opening half. For a team allowing 50 points a game over 25 games getting better is a high bar to reach but one that Duke seems to be reaching.
At a good time.
Lawson mentioned this in her post-game. It's common, not just in basketball but also in football, where a team with the lead and the ball milks the play clock down to as close to zero (assuming the game clock is running) as possible before snapping the ball. In basketball, the team with the lead tries to shorten the game with long possessions, the trailing team tries to lengthen it at the end by fouling. Basic math but boring basketball. And yes, it can backfire if a team can't get decent looks at the end of the shot clock and that did happen yesterday. But sometimes burning 30 seconds is a victory of sorts.
Jim: I seen it so many times. Teams with big leads go into slow down to at up the clock, and stop playing the offence that got the big lead, Then shooting at the last seconds often ends just like the 4th quarter. I hold Lawson responsible for "turning them off after that amazing first half. Could you comment? Jack gartner