Looking at Duke's stats compared to the rest of the ACC has been interesting. Prior to playing Louisville, Duke was #3 in the ACC in scoring, #2 in scoring margin, #1 in FG%, #2 in FT%, #1 in 3FG% and #4 in assists. One might ask: did Joanne P. McCallie do some soul-searching in the offseason and make major changes in her offense? The answer, of course, is no. The schemes are exactly the same: basic high-post screens to free up a penetrating guard or a shooter, entry passes to the post from the wing. Repeat ad infinitum. So why is Duke doing so well? It's for the same reason why Duke did well when they had Chelsea Gray & Jasmine Thomas in the same backcourt, or Gray & Alexis Jones: talented guards who can make smart decisions.
I can't overstate how much the addition of Lexie Brown has meant to the team. Her role her is very different than her role at Maryland, and it's for the best. She is a scoring guard, first and foremost, who happens to be a good passer. When she gets her feet set on the wing, chances are that her shot will go in. Throw in the always-solid Rebecca Greenwell as a big guard who can drive and post up a little in addition to draining long-range bombs and the immense improvement of Kyra Lambert as a sophomore, and you have a high scoring trio (45 ppg) that's hard to entirely shut down. Having Lambert around to run point and initiate the offense allows Brown & Greenwell to hunt their shots. Sometimes they get way too focused in on themselves and forget there are other shooters on the team; I've often seen Kyra jump up down when she was open and someone didn't look her way. The bottom line is that for a team that has to do a lot of broken-play scoring, it's good to have experienced players who can improvise.
I'll address some of the ACC's early wackiness in another post, but when the top two teams in the league both dropped early games to NC State, it means that the league is suddenly much more interesting than I thought it was going to be, at least for now. That meant there was a lot at stake in the Duke-Louisville game, a match-up between #13 and #8, respectively. The Cards got hammered by South Carolina and nipped by Maryland, but they beat Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Syracuse. The latter game saw star guard Asia Durr score over 30 points in the second half alone, as the Cards erased an early double-digit deficit and won going away. Durr, post Myisha Hines-Allen (the reigning ACC player of the year) and big guard Mariya Moore made up Louisville's big three, with Briahanna Jackson acting as the glue player and point guard. It was role players all the way down after that, with the Cards bringing in a variety of big, physical posts that were looking to knock some heads.
Early on, it was laughably obvious that Louisville had easily scouted Duke's every move and had a quick defensive counter. Even if Sam Williams hadn't been McCallie's former assistant, the offense is not all that hard to decipher. They forced Duke to take tough shots, and the Devils made a bunch of them in the early going, which I didn't think was sustainable. Greenwell was held in check, and Ducky Odom was in no way ready for the physical punishment the Cards were dishing out down low. They also blasted Oderah Chidom away from the basket. Meanwhile, Moore kept finding the hole in Duke's zone and was able to get some relatively easy baskets. Moore came into the game shooting 25% from three but wound up nailing 4-8 from long range. Meanwhile, Durr was chucking like crazy (5-18 in the game, 2-12 from three) in an effort to punish Duke's zone. Durr mostly did it off the dribble and shot from the wing instead of running to the corner where there was almost always a wide-open shot (a function of the matchup zone). Moore did almost all of her damage from the corner. The Cards dominated the boards and the paint in the first half, but bad shooting and 8 turnovers limited them to a two point lead.
Then came the wacky play that everyone's seen. Louisville coach Jeff Walz had three of his players wander over to Duke's side of the court before the second half began and line up, except that the Duke players were fooled into forgetting that the two teams changed baskets at the half. Louisville's other two players inbounded the ball for an easy layup, laughing all the way. Duke shook that off and stayed close in the third quarter. There were times when it seemed like the Cards were in control, as they once went up by as many as six. Every time they threatened to pull away, Duke would make a great defensive play or Brown would hit a big shot. Duke decided to wall off the post and then flood the passing lanes by bringing all three guards up high, and that action proved confusing for a Louisville team that was hell-bent on feeding the post. Despite seeming to be in control and forcing Duke to make tough plays, the Cards were up just 44-41 after three quarters.
Duke won the fourth quarter, and the game, because Louisville's defense started to break down while the Devils were now comfortable scoring off broken plays. After both teams blew scoring opportunities, Durr hit a tough jumper to put the Cards up by five with under eight minutes left. Brown found Greenwell for her only three of the game, but it was a momentum-swinger. Duke got a stop and Lambert hit a long two to tie the game and then boldly attacked the basket to somehow give Duke the lead. This is when the game started getting really good. Durr got fouled and hit both, but Lambert found Erin Mathias posting up in great position, and she was able to finish nicely on a seal. Moore hit a big time three to make it 51-50 for the Cards.
After three misses by each team, Lambert came up with a huge steal when the Cards tried to pass into the post yet again. Brown sped up the floor, drew a defender, and then bounced a pass to a wide-open Kendall Cooper (who had a huge game) to put Duke up with under two minutes left. Hines-Allen put Louisville up with a cold-blooded face-up jumper, but Greenwell drove and somehow managed to push her shot into the hoop with under a minute left. Duke played outstanding defense on the next possession, forcing Jackson to take a three that Cooper blocked and Lambert (she was everywhere!) recovered. Duke wasn't in the bonus yet, so Louisville had to burn a few seconds by fouling twice. For some reason, Walz didn't take Jackson out of the game in an obvious fouling position even though she had four fouls, and Jackson was forced to foul automatic foul shooter Lexie Brown when Duke managed to spring her. Brown is the owner of Duke's longest consecutive free-throw shooting streak (45 and counting), and she said the pressure of hitting those free throws in the moment wasn't that big a deal because every free throw is a pressure situation for her now. Having her on the floor (and Louisville not finding a way to foul someone else) was a big bonus for Duke, because she's quite a weapon in this sort of situation.
After Brown hit two, Duke walled off the perimeter, allowing Hines-Allen to lean in for a jumper. Duke sprung Brown long again and she got fouled, hitting both. Without Jackson, Louisville looked a little less organized. Duke fouled on an inbounds play because they had fouls to give and wanted to burn a second or so. Still, the new rule that allows teams to inbounds at mid-court after a timeout late in the game is a tremendous advantage that helped Louisville set up a play. Duke was shadowing all of Louisville's scorers, and reserve guard Sydney Zambrotta had to fling a desperation shot that almost went in, but was instead rebounded by Cooper to finish the game.
This marks a second top-ten opponent that Duke has beaten and a third top-25 foe. Beating the expected third-place team in the league and now owning the tiebreaker over them was actually quite significant for a conference season-opener, especially with the ACC looking more wide open at this point. The league is really tough this year, as 13 teams are currently in the RPI top 100, and 8 are in the top 50. The good news is that Duke has home games against Syracuse, Miami, and Virginia Tech. Notre Dame and FSU (two games I don't think Duke can win) are on the road anyway. NC State is a very dangerous road game.
