The bottom line of Duke's win over South Carolina is that Duke was as well-prepared to win this game as I've ever seen them in the McCallie years. The game plan was sound, the substitution patterns were sensible and the players were locked in. This is not to say that this was a perfect game, as Duke had to scratch out baskets without many connecting plays (eight assists and thirty field goals), The Devils had 16 turnovers, and were outrebounded by three. USC had 16 offensive rebounds. That said, there were a season's worth of lucky and unlikely shots that went in, but fortune favors the locked-in. After the game, Rebecca Greenwell said that she had never wanted to win a game more than this win in her life, and considering that she made some key errors in Duke's 51-50 loss to USC in Cameron two years ago, that's understandable. It wasn't just Greenwell, though. Oderah Chidom was as mentally tough as I've ever seen her, mentally dialed in for the entire game.
What hurt USC the most, I think, was the lack of a leader to rally around when things went south. The Gamecocks got some fool's gold in the early going when Duke was jittery and nervous, and it showed in their play. A'Ja Wilson scored nine points in the first five or so minutes as USC did a great job of getting her the ball. Kendall Cooper, as I feared, was erratic and couldn't handle her. Duke turned the ball over six times in the first six minutes. USC was jamming Duke's shooters, and other than Chidom sneaking by the massive Alaina Coates for a layup, Duke looked helpless on offense. USC was up 16-5, and coach Dawn Staley thought it was time to continue to grow a very young and shallow bench, as she sat Wilson and Allisha Gray. After the game, she said that she went against her usual substitution pattern and took out Wilson, and that single decision may have cost them the game. Without Wilson as their fulcrum, USC started to freelance on offense and started to jack up threes. Worse, they started turning the ball over, as the speed of Chidom and Ducky Odom started to catch USC off-balance. Indeed, Duke sped up the game just a half-beat for much of the rest of the game, and USC looked uncomfortable with that pace as they started rushing shots.
Duke scored six straight points and Odom stole the ball from a USC reserve with fourteen seconds to go. Things were not exactly calm out there, but Odom passed the ball to Chidom, who squared up from just outside the three point line and buried the shot. Not exactly how they drew it up for Chidom's first career three, but it couldn't have came at a better time as it made the score 16-14. Chidom needled Greenwell after the game that her career three point shooting percentage was now better than hers (1-2, for 50%).
What was strange was how bad USC looked in the second quarter, especially on the defensive end. This was the first game USC had this year where it felt like the players were playing for three different teams. Kaela Davis was able to get away with shooting whenever she felt like it earlier in the year, because she was sizzling from the field, but this was a game where the many deficits in her game hurt USC. For example, a lack of discipline on the defensive end frequently led USC to leave Greenwell in order to attend to Lexie Brown, which led to Becca catching fire. She had consecutive treys that put Duke up by six halfway through the quarter, while USC was trying to catch up by jacking up treys at the other end instead of patiently getting the ball to Wilson.
While USC's bench was faltering, Duke's bench was doing good things. Odom was everywhere and took advantage of some silly cross-court passes to zoom down the floor for a layup. Her speed was such that no USC player could even begin to close on her. Erin Mathias went toe-to-toe with Coates and Wilson and did well. She blocked Wilson and then had a beautiful one-on-one move to score. She confidently stepped into a jumper to put Duke up by eleven late in the half. Lynee' Belton came in and had an assist and was happy to body up the Gamecocks. Duke had a chance to go up by as many as fifteen points but blew some late baskets, and Coates scored with time running down in the half. Still, Duke led by seven at the half.
The third quarter saw USC tighten up their problems, but Duke had figured out how to defend the post. As I suggested in my preview, they walled off the post and fronted Wilson with Mathias. The impatient USC guards tried to lob the ball over Mathias, but Erin surprised them with her leaping as she came up with several steals and deflections. USC's spacing wasn't great and they didn't have great angles of attack; Staley noted that one extra pass was what was needed to get a good look, but Duke managed to make that hard for them. The Gamecocks did start to hit a few outside shots, but Gray missed multiple shots to bring it under five and Greenwell or Odom found ways to respond. Duke ended the quarter on an 8-1 run as Kyra Lambert hit a big shot and USC was utterly stymied. The Devils carried an unlikely eleven point lead into the fourth quarter.
USC cut into the lead as Davis hit back-to-back treys (her only threes of the game) and USC once again cut the lead to five. They had opportunities to draw closer, but Duke made big defensive play after big defensive play, including Brown taking a charge from Gray and Chidom blocking Wilson. Greenwell hit a three and then nailed another jumper to keep USC at arm's length. Mathias went up and forced a jump ball against Wilson and then later came up with another tip steal fronting Wilson. On one play with Duke up 7, Brown took a short jumper, missed, and Chidom batted at the ball like a volleyball player--and it went in the basket.
Then came a weird sequence. Bianca Cuervas-Moore hit her only three of the game to bring USC within six with 1:42 left. USC was then called for a technical for having six players on the floor when the ball was whistled in, and Greenwell hit both freebies. The Gamecocks never threatened again. Greenwell was magnificent with 29 points, 3 boards and 3 steals. Chidom had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Wilson wound up with 18 points but only scored nine after the first five minutes of the game. Alaina Coates had just 8 points and 5 rebounds. They put up 26 and 11 combined, less than the 32 and 18 they had been averaging this year. Davis had 14 points on 14 shots and was just 2-9 from three. Gray was solid with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, but she's still not really the leader type at this moment.
Lambert was sneaky-good with 10 points, including some unlikely makes taken with the shot clock running down. She still pounded the ball too much at times, but she did take care of the ball. Odom had 6 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals. Mathias had 6 points, 4 boards and 3 steals. Duke wound up winning the points in the paint battle 42-32, and as McCallie said afterward, that was the game. It's the first win by Duke against a top-3 team since 2009. This is a win to hang one's hat on come NCAA tournament time, but Duke will likely need to beat Kentucky as well to begin to feel good about their postseason prospects. Still, this was a solid win against a good but flawed opponent, and the fact is is that picked apart their flaws in a way that prior ranked opponents Ohio State, Texas and Louisville could not.
No comments:
Post a Comment