The Duke women’s basketball team defeated Boston College 80-75 Sunday afternoon to run its ACC record to 1-1 and its winning streak to four.
I’m just not sure how.
Neither is Duke coach Kara Lawson.
“It wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure. Most of the things that you look at that determine games, we were on the wrong side of.”
Like what?
Well, BC committed 20 turnovers but Duke committed a jaw-dropping 28. Six different Blue Devils had at least three, including point guard Taina Mair, who had five.
“We’ve just got to slow down a little bit,” Mair said. “Just slow down and we’ll be just fine.”
That would help, especially with the freshmen who had some out-of-control turnovers in transition.
But Duke struggled in the half-court, especially trying to force entry passes into the post.
“We have too many careless possessions,” Lawson acknowledged. “We have to cut down on the unforced turnovers. Sometimes we’re not in the right place. I think entry passes are something we need to continue to work on, the passer and the receiver. I think some of those were the receiver not coming to the ball and meeting the pass; not just the passer. They were very aggressive trying to take that away and we didn’t handle it too well.”
Boston College grabbed 24 offensive rebounds; Duke had 26 defensive rebounds. BC had a 19 to 6 advantage in second-chance points.
Boston College isn’t especially big but an awful lot of these offensive rebounds weren’t at the basket. Maybe they were quicker to the ball, maybe they wanted it more, maybe it was just luck.
“It’s just an area we have to improve,” Lawson said. “It’s discipline, it’s psychicality, it’s effort. We just have inconsistencies when the shot goes up on the defensive glass and we have to improve on that. It’s not glamorous.”
That wasn’t all.
At one point early in the second half Boston College had attempted 18 foul shots, Duke one.
The Eagles ended the game with 26 more field-goal attempts and seven more free throw attempts, the latter statistic modified by Duke taking eight in the final 37 seconds, as Boston College tried to lengthen the game.
So, how did Duke win? Well, they shot lights out, 64 percent from the field to Boston College’s 37 percent. Duke was 8 for 14 (57 percent) on 3s, 12 for 15 (80 percent from the line).
“The offense was pretty good when we weren’t throwing it to them,” Lawson said. “That was going well for us. We feel like the offense is growing but we’re going to have to learn how to handle pressure.”
Duke led 3-2 on a Reigan Richardson triple but fell behind 10-3, then 15-7 as Duke had six turnovers in the first three minutes.
Mair helped bring Duke back, a 3-pointer making it 15-10, another 18-13.
“We just needed some momentum.” she said. “I just hit some great shots that got us going.”
Duke closed to within a point, 23-22, after one.
It was a see-saw second quarter. Duke threatened to get some separation late, leading 42-36, 44-38 and 47-40 but something always went wrong.
Duke led 47-43 at the half.
It could have been worse. Boston College missed half of their 16 first-half foul shots.
The third period was more of the same, Duke unable to pull away, Boston College unable to regain the lead. Duke’s third-period lead fluctuated from nothing at 51-51 to nine at 62-53 and 64-55 before four BC freebies in the final 41 seconds made it 64-59 after three.
The Eagles got as close as two at 66-64 in the final quarter before Duke settled down and kept them at arm’s length. Richardson hit a huge 3 for 69-64 and then a layup in transition that should have been a 3-point play were it not for an Okananwa lane violation. The lead never hit double figures but Duke did enough.
Mair led everyone with 21 points, followed by Okananwa (16), Richardson (13) and Ashlon Jackson (12).
Andrea Daley (18 points) and Utah transfer Teya Sidberry (17) led the visitors.
If you casually follow ACC women’s basketball you might think Boston College an easy mark. But Joanna Bernabel-McNamee has put together a competitive team. They came into Cameron on a five-game winning streak and competitive loses against Marquette (73-65), Wisconsin (82-72) and Kentucky (83-81).
Never take an ACC game for granted.
“The name of the game in ACC play is winning,” Lawson said. “If games are going to be ugly, you have to find a way to win. I told them after, ‘hey congrats on your first ACC win.’ We had to figure it out when we weren’t playing our best and I’m proud of them for that.”
But tougher tests await Duke, starting with a visit to Louisville next Thursday and Duke is going to have to start better, rebound better and handle better.
“We need to get on the positive side of these things to win on the road,” Lawson summed up. “We need to cut down the turnovers, we need to rebound better, we need to get to the line more and send the opposing team to the line less.”
In other words, the basics.
So, that’s it for me for 2023. Happy New Year and I’ll see you on the flip side.
Good article.
Happy New Year and GoDuke!