The Duke women won a big game last night. Their 58-45 win at Syracuse was their third ACC road win, Virginia and Pittsburgh the first two. But Syracuse was ranked 17th, so it was the first one over a ranked team.
A road win over a ranked team always is something to celebrate.
But, oh, those turnovers.
Duke pulled off the win with defense and rebounding.
How else do you win by double-figures while turning it over a jaw-dropping 27 times?
First the good stuff, and there was lots of it. Syracuse made a quarter of their field-goal attempts. That would be 14 of 56. Grad-student Dyashia Fair is sixth on the NCAA women’s career scoring list and she notched 22 points. But it wasn’t an efficient 22 points; she was 7 for 25, 1 for 7 from beyond the arc.
She wasn’t alone. Georgia Wooley was 3 for 11, Alyssa Latham 1 for 4, Sophie Burrows 0 for 4.
Syracuse had six assists. SIX.
Duke’s defense was elite, tough, swarming, seemingly always in the right place.
And when Syracuse missed, the didn’t get it back very often. They did grab 10 offensive rebounds but Duke grabbed 35 defensive rebounds. Duke won the rebounding battle 52-25.
Yes, that’s a palindrome.
I digress. Freshman Jadyn Donovan grabbed 15 rebounds for Duke, classmate Oluchi Okananwa seven.
Duke had two players score in double figures, Kennedy Brown with 12 and Reigan Richardson with 11. Truth be told 58 points isn’t a lot of points for a team with 17 offensive rebounds.
Have I mentioned those 27 turnovers? Syracuse traps and presses a lot and with some skill.
But 27?
Trust me the subject has come up at pressers, either at the end of the game or Tuesday’s ZOOMs. If I notice it and you notice it, the coaches and players certainly notice it.
My theory is that Lawson has built her program around defense and recruited around defense and there’s a finite amount of practice time available and it takes a lot of practice time to refine that defense and it’s hard to argue with holding a top-20 team to 45 points at their place.
But I’m not at practice, so what do I know?
Sophomores Ashlon Jackson and Taina Mair have been the primary ball-handlers this season. Jackson had five turnovers and no assists last night, Mair nine assists and four turnovers. Posts Brown and Camilla Emsbo each had four turnovers.
Anyway. Syracuse also shot 18 free throws, which is a lot for a team that trailed most of the game; Duke led 35-17 at the half.
Now, I was watching on my laptop, so maybe the officiating looked better in person. Still, rule number one of holding a lead is don’t let the other team score with the clock stopped.
Duke does have the ability to score points against good teams; 79 in an overtime loss to Stanford, 82 against Florida Gulf Coast, 80 against Boston College, 84 against Georgia Tech, 88 against Florida State.
Don’t throw the ball to the other team. Easy to say, apparently harder to do.
But kind of important as we approach March.
Duke’s win puts them at 9-6 in the ACC, 17-9 overall. NC State and Virginia at home. UNC on the road, then the ACC Tournament, then the NCAA Tournament.
I feel reasonably confident about the last. Duke is 21 in the NET. Charlie Creme has Duke as a seven seed in the Big Dance and it would likely take an oh-fer in the last three games and ACC Tournament opener to knock Duke out and maybe not even then.
As long as Duke defends and rebounds like they did last night in the frozen Tundra, this is a team that can make some noise.
But a few less turnovers. Please