The Duke women defeated Wake Forest 69-46 Thursday night to run their record to 15-7, 7-4 in the ACC. The Deacs dropped to 4-19, 0-11 in conference play.
That sounds pretty anodyne. The game was anything but. My notes have words like careless, sloppy and unfocused to describe Duke’s first 11 minutes.
Certainly, some of it was rust. Duke didn’t play last weekend. But for much of the opening quarter Duke looked like a bunch of women who had just met at the bus station and decided to go play some pick-up hoops.
After an early 4-0 Duke lead, Wake Forest scored 16 straight, consecutive points in a row.
Redundancy for emphasis.
Duke turned it over on four consecutive possessions during this stretch, nine turnovers in the opening period.
NINE
Duke also hit 3 for 9 from the field, in the first, while Wake made 6 of 11, including four triples.
The deficit peaked at 16 points, 22-6, 11 minutes into the game.
“A lot of issues,” Lawson said of the opening minutes, while praising Wake Forest for exploiting those issues. “We were undisciplined defensively and they did a good job of disrupting us. I thought we were a little stunned by how they were playing and they did a great job of imposing their will.”
Oluchi Okananwa cited Duke’s defensive lapses.
“We’re a completely different team when we’re all fully locked in and aggressive on the defensive end. It’s something that we let define us. In that first half, that was not us.”
Duke began clawing back. Jadyn Donovan, Reigan Richardson and Taina Mair scored to cut the deficit to 10. After an Alyssa Andrews 3 made it 25-12 Duke closed the half on an 8-2 run.
Duke’s ability to eat into the huge deficit during the second period instead of waiting until halftime to regroup was crucial.
“What you’re looking for is response,” Lawson said, “and we had that response. Let’s cut into this possession by possession and we did.”
Okananwa said “we started getting into that groove. On defense we started locking in. On the offense end we just started connecting more with each other. You can’t get frustrated and you can’t let yourself so much as dwell on the score. All you have to think is one possession at a time and just fight.”
Still, a 27-20 Duke deficit was the last place Duke expected to be at the half. Some of the stats explain why, at least partially. Wake attempted six 3-pointers. And made them all.
This is a team that came into Cameron hitting 28 percent from beyond the arc.
Each team had 13 turnovers. Wake was 5 for 8 from the line. Duke did not go to the line. Kennedy Brown picked up two quick fouls and played all of 3:44 in the first half.
Richardson had four turnovers. In the first half.
Oluchi Okananwa said the halftime discussions were calm and focused.
“The point of emphasis was to disrupt them. We need to make any team we play uncomfortable. We were just too lax with them in letting them get what they wanted,”
Lawson agreed.
“We talked about where the breakdowns were coming from and how we could correct them. I didn’t yell. It wasn’t emotional. It wasn’t anything like that. It was problem solving.”
It didn’t take Duke long to impose its will in the second half.
It helped that Brown was able to stay on the floor. Lawson calls her “our defensive anchor.”
Brown blocked Andria Scruggs in the lane on Wake’s first second-half possession.
Tone set.
Duke still had to score points. Ashlon Jackson was scoreless for 25 minutes but had an 8-0 personal run to break a 30-30 tie and give Duke a 33-30 lead, then 35-30, then 38-30.
But Mair was the unstoppable force in the second half, getting downhill and scoring at the rim.
“We needed to put some accelerant into our transition game,” Lawson said. “We talked to our guards. Attack. Don’t just cross half-court and be passive. Try to get some offense before they set up. I thought she was terrific, just probing and getting to the paint. We needed those points from her tonight.”
Twelve of Mair’s game high 17 points came after intermission.
She wasn’t the only perimeter player in attack mode. Okananwa added 16 points and five rebounds.
Duke outscored Wake 14 to 8 in the second period, a dominant 25-5 in the third. After that early 22-6 Wake lead Duke outscored Wake Forest 63-24.
Duke ended with 18 turnovers, only five in the second half and outrebounded Wake 32-19, with Donovan grabbing 10. The Blue Devils also made 11 of 12 from the line, again all in the second half.
So, a two-game winning streak. But a two-game winning streak against Pittsburgh and Wake Forest, two of the worst teams in power-conference hoops, two wins that didn’t move the needle very much.
Duke has lots of chances to move the needle coming up, move the needle in a good way, or a bad way.
Duke’s next five games are at home against UNC, at Virginia Tech, at home against Notre Dame, at Syracuse and at home against NC State.
Call it a minefield, call it a gauntlet, call it a murder’s row of opponents.
Call it opportunity.
The win over Wake Forest leaves Duke at 7-4 in the ACC. The top four in the ACC get a double bye in the conference tournament. Duke is outside the top four but it is attainable, especially if they beat teams ahead of them.
The NCAA is the next goal. Charlie Creme currently projects Duke as an eighth seed, in Iowa’s (Caitlin Clark) regional, for what it’s worth.
But Duke is 23 in the most recent NET, which suggests something closer to a six seed.
Duke’s strength of schedule was 10th going into the Wake game and that’s only going to improve.
Duke is undefeated at home against ACC opponents. But the only road wins have been at Virginia and Pitt.
A bunch of wins against that upcoming gauntlet and those metrics improve. Maybe even enough to move into hosting position, which also would require a deep run in the ACC Tournament.
But a bunch of losses and things could get dicey come selection time.
I talked to Lawson earlier this week about that looming schedule tsunami. Here are some of her thoughts.
“The only way is through it. That’s the only way. Are we ready? We’ll see. I think we’ve been prepared. They’ve been challenged. You’ve just got to go play them. Everything is still out there for us in terms of getting wins and winning big games but we’ve got to go do that.”
The Devils host the Heels Sunday, an announced full house awaiting, an appetizer for a football game later in the day, inasmuch as any Duke-Carolina game in any sport can be considered an appetizer.