Winter break games are usually a slog. The players are dealing with the aftermath of finals, thinking about going home, etc. No one really wants to be there, and it shows. The game against Elon was certainly evidence of that, as the fired-up Phoenix (featuring noted transfer Maddie McCallie) went toe-to-toe with the disinterested Devils. Duke's frontcourt was especially mediocre, especially on the defensive end where frosh Ra'Shika White outscored the entire Duke starting AND reserve frontcourt. McCallie downplayed the emotional component of this game afterwards, blaming the media for building it up. Why she scheduled a game against her daughter is still a mystery.
The Villanova game was interesting because of their ultra-complex offense that involved multiple weaves and screens. It's always fun to see their coach Harry Paretta, one of college basketball's all-time screamers, on the sideline. The years have clearly mellowed him. I remember sitting behind their bench around twenty years ago in Cameron in a sparsely-attended game, and I have never heard a coach--before or since--light into his players so hard and so often. I felt bad for them. Speaking of which, Villanova is where former Duke player Laura Kurz wound up after she transferred. One of the best pure shooters in Duke history, she was otherwise a bad fit for a Gail Goestenkors team built on quickness and versatility. It didn't help that she had a slow release and a low release point. But if she was open...automatic.
The game itself was not well played. Villanova flummoxed Duke with their offensive sets and the Devils had no answer for their shooters getting good looks. The Wildcats always made the extra pass. The problem was that other than Adriana Hahn (6-13 from three) the rest of the team shot 4-28 from distance. They had the shots, but not the shooters. Duke finally made some adjustments and started jamming shooters, but the Wildcats still made the extra pass and got open looks. The big difference is that Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell are playing at a high level and complement each other nicely. Brown hunts her shots relentlessly and Greenwell has added rebounding at a high level to her skill set.
Kentucky was another very important game for Duke. The Devils picked up a crucial win against South Carolina and needed another win against a ranked opponent going into the ACC season to further shore up their NCAA tourney credentials and start to build a case for hosting the first round. Kentucky lost a lot of players, but still returned Evelyn Akhator (18 points vs Duke last year), Maci Morris (9 points), Taylor Murray (4 points), and star guard Makayla Epps (18 points, 8 assists). The Wildcats crushed Miami and dominated Oklahoma, giving them two wins against ranked opponents to date. They also lost in overtime to Arizona State and Louisville, and lost on the road to Colorado. They are a good, solid team, albeit one with weaknesses.
Epps is a penetrator who does not shoot from long range. Akhator and Rice feed off the passes of others when defenses key on shooters and Epps; they do not create their own offense. Morris, Murray and bench players Makenzie Cann & Jessica Hardin are the team's shooters. A few things became quickly apparent about Kentucky. First, if they go up against teams with the same kind of size, their frontcourt can struggle a bit. Second, if their shooters aren't getting good looks and making them, then the Wildcats are an ordinary team. Without the room provided by shooters creating spacing, it's hard for Epps to operate. Kentucky likes to create offense from defense and run as much as possible, but if you take away transition, they can be greatly slowed.
The first four minutes of the game were a disaster for Duke. Neither team ever looked completely comfortable on offense thanks to being so evenly matched in terms of size and quickness, but Duke's rust and lack of focus was evident with three quick turnovers and two fouls on Ducky Odom in the first four minutes of the game. Kentucky went up 8-2, but coach Mark Mitchell was correct in his estimation that if Kentucky had executed better, they could have been up 15-2. The Devils responded with a 13-2 run as Chidom got the ball down low against Akhator and straight-up ate her lunch. All she had to do was post up, feel her position in space relative to her opponent, and then make a quick & decisive move. Kentucky started fronting her a bit more after that and used the stronger Rice to body her out, but Chidom certainly did a lot of damage.
Duke never trailed again. Part of that was Brown carefully choosing her spots and finding cracks in the defense to exploit. She wound up with 24 points and 5 steals, was money from the foul line (8-8) and generally displayed the ability to score whenever needed. Kendall Cooper came off the bench to provide some solid minutes with scores around the basket. Kyra Lambert drilled a three at the end of the second quarter to extend Duke's lead out to five at the half. Every time Kentucky made a shot or looked like they were ready to get back in the game, Duke responded with cool maturity.
The third quarter was an ugly slog that saw Akhator grab five offensive in a flurry of activity, but she couldn't score. Duke pushed the lead out to nine thanks to a trey from Brown and a basket from Odom on a beautiful pass from Chidom. Kentucky fought back, getting to within two points late in the third quarter. This time around, it was Greenwell who pushed the lead, finally getting a trey to drop. The Devils started the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run to put the game away. Kentucky missed ten shots in a row, while Greenwell and Brown went to work. Duke got contributions from everywhere as they were able to attack the lane, and both Odom and Lambert got opportunities. The backbreaker came after Duke got a stop, up by thirteen with six minutes to go. With the shot clock running down, Cooper got off a hook shot in the lane that dropped through. That margin was way too much for a now-exhausted Kentucky team to overcome. The teams pretty much traded baskets the rest of the way.
The game pretty much came down to Duke making more tough shots and scoring in the paint with greater efficiency. Akhator and burly post Alyssa Rice were a combined 0-6 from the floor and 3-8 from the foul line. The Wildcats outrebounded Duke and had a sizable 21-13 edge in points off turnovers. (Duke had a lot of sloppy handoffs when they ran their halfcourt offense, and multiple post players inexplicably brought the ball down low to their waist and had it stripped.) Duke forced a number of turnovers as well, with some of them being boom-boom turnover sequences from one team to the other. Duke won the paint, 30-22, and keeping Epps out of there during the first half was a big win for Duke. Taylor Murray had 16 first half points (including a couple of treys for this 22% shooter from distance) but regressed to the mean in the second half.
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