Freshman point guard Angela Salvadores is known for her willingness to take risks on the court, and her flashiness produced one of the plays of the year for Duke Thursday night.
The Blue Devils coasted to an 79-41 victory against Liberty at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the strength of a 21-0 second-quarter run that was highlighted by Salvadores’ play. With 3:22 remaining in the half, the Leon, Spain, native caught an outlet pass from Azurá Stevens, dribbled through the legs of Liberty guard Sadalia Ellis without breaking stride and finished an electric fast break with an assist to redshirt sophomore Rebecca Greenwell for one of her eight assists.
“The space was between the legs,” Salvadores said. “The first thing I saw was the legs and I had a lot of space behind her, so I just threw the ball there.”
The play exemplified Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie’s pregame emphasis on an up-tempo style of play against a tall Lady Flame squad. Liberty (3-7) came to Durham as one of the few teams with the height to match up against the Blue Devil frontcourt, so Duke’s guards decided to run all over the Lady Flames.
Greenwell poured in a career-high 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting to lead all scorers, and freshmen point guards Salvadores and Kyra Lambert combined for 19 more. Greenwell also led the team with eight rebounds and Stevens cleaned up a few misses under the basket with three offensive boards and finished the game with 13 points.
“Coming into the game, I wanted to try to be effective in different ways and really just try to focus on defense,” Greenwell said. “That just helped my overall game and the offense came with that defensive rebounding.”
The Blue Devils (9-2) aggressively pressed and trapped for much of the first half, forcing 15 turnovers before the break that resulted in several transition baskets. Duke outscored Liberty 14-2 on fast break points for the game, and the press made it difficult for the Lady Flames to begin their half-court offense until late in the shot clock, preventing them feeding 6-foot-4 Ashley Rininger in the post.
Rininger entered the contest as Liberty’s leading scorer—averaging 14.3 points per game—but was held to just four points on five attempts from the field and left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury.
“We’re trying to press throughout and create havoc and really attack…get more steals and just really disrupt what people are doing,” McCallie said. “We’re still missing opportunities, but when we’re aggressive like we were today and intense, that’s really good.”
Redshirt freshman Lyneé Belton remained in the starting lineup for Duke after a breakout performance Monday against Massachusetts in her first career start, and spun for a layup to score the first points of the game Thursday. The Clinton, Md., native held her own in the post and played effective defense while scoring five points and pulling down six rebounds, one year to the day removed from a season-ending ACL injury against Oklahoma.
After Belton's quick score, things got sloppy for the Duke offense, though, as the Blue Devils’ young backcourt struggled to control the ball while playing a fast-paced game. After a clean performance with just nine turnovers Monday, Duke committed six in the first quarter against the Lady Flames. But McCallie’s squad protected the ball better as the game went on and finished the contest with just eight more giveaways the rest of the way.
“We have a long way to go to get everything we can out of each [player], and we’ve got to really push for that,” McCallie said. “That’ll be a very special time when we can get it in gear, so it’s a challenge maximizing the whole team.”
Liberty suffered a major blow midway through the second quarter when junior forward Mickayla Sanders picked up her third foul trying the slap a rebound away from Stevens after just four minutes of playing. Sanders scored 12 points in her season debut last Saturday against Seton Hall after missing the first eight games with an injury and still led her team with seven points Thursday, but had to watch most of Duke’s game-deciding run from the bench due to foul trouble.
The Blue Devils face their final major nonconference test Sunday when they will face No. 8 Kentucky at 7 p.m. at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
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