Up 15 points in the second half, Duke had to like its chances of pulling out its first victory against a top-10 opponent this season.
One 19-4 Texas A&M run later, the young Blue Devil squad had painfully received just one of many lessons it will learn throughout the course of the regular season—you have to play consistent, focused basketball for the full 40 minutes.
No. 8 Duke fell victim to a late second-half run by the No. 7 Aggies Sunday afternoon in a painful 63-59 loss.
“That one’s a stinger because of the opportunities that we had—the missed layups, there’s just no room for that,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We’re hungry and not very happy.”
Playing without star center Elizabeth Williams—who missed the game with an ankle injury—the Blue Devils showed no signs of apprehension playing on the road in front of a raucous crowd in their first true test of the season. Duke shot 41.9 percent from the field and connected on 4-of-6 attempts from beyond the arc to take a 12-point lead heading into halftime.
After stretching the lead to 15 midway through the second half, the Blue Devils went into a shooting slump that—coupled with a fierce rally by the home team—produced to a tie ballgame at 49 with seven minutes to go.
“In the first half, we did a really good job controlling the tempo…. Overall, I just don’t think we came out in the second half ready to go, ” said redshirt freshman Rebecca Greenwell, who led the Blue Devils with 23 points.
Throughout the course of the final seven minutes of the contest, one of Duke’s biggest weaknesses came into focus—inexperience.
With the Aggies gaining momentum in front of their home crowd, the Blue Devils appeared frazzled and slowly began to lose their composure. Duke, which entered the season with Williams as the only returning starter, featured a lineup including three freshmen—Greenwell, Sierra Calhoun and Azurá Stevens—and a point guard still learning how to play the position at the college level in senior Ka'lia Johnson.
On the other end of the floor, Texas A&M—coming off a run to the Elite Eight last season—had experienced juniors Courtney Walker, Courtney Williams and Jordan Jones to guide the Aggies down the stretch. With the trio playing cohesively and the Aggie crowd reignited by the comeback, the Blue Devils faced an uphill battle to retake control of the game.
Duke hung tight and found itself still leading by a point with 4:44 remaining in the game. But time and time again, the confidence of the veteran Texas A&M players continued to win out.
After two Greenwell free throws gave the Blue Devils a 53-52 lead, the Aggies got a big three from Walker on a night that Texas A&M struggled mightily from beyond the arc. Then, with the Aggies up 57-55, Jones hit a tough elbow jumper to widen the gap. With a two-point lead with just more than a minute to go, Texas A&M put the game seemingly out of reach with a mid-range jumper from Courtney Williams.
Every time Duke tried to creep back in the game, the more experienced Aggies made the plays necessary to get the win.
And the Blue Devils did not do themselves too many favors down the stretch.
Greenwell, who hit three of her six attempts from beyond the arc, missed a point-blank layup that would have stretched Duke’s lead to three. Stevens, who finished with 15 points on the night, was called for traveling with 2:40 left in the contest. A questionable offensive foul went against freshman Lynee Belton—who saw 17 minutes of action with the injury to Elizabeth Williams and foul trouble in the frontcourt—with 1:00 remaining.
“Certainly credit A&M for what they did down the stretch, but we’ll grow from this,” McCallie said.
Considering that Sunday’s game was the first encounter for many Blue Devils with a contest of such magnitude, the play from the young squad for the first 25 minutes was exceptional, particularly without its second-leading scorer in Williams. With more time and close-game experience, this Duke squad appears capable of challenging some of the best in the country.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.