Duke came out with energy from the opening tip Thursday night and pulled away in the second half to rebound from one of the worst losses in program history.
The No. 18 Blue Devils picked up their first conference win with a convincing 95-68 victory against Wake Forest, just days after their 86-50 shellacking on the road at the hands of Syracuse. Sophomore forward Azurá Stevens led all scorers with 23 points, redshirt sophomore Rebecca Greenwell added 21 points and nine rebounds and freshman Angela Salvadores poured in a career-high 18 to spearhead the Duke offense.
“In the second half, obviously we turned it up a few notches, and I think the team felt that and enjoyed it—played well together,” said Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie. “We can really build off that second half in hopes to turn that into a 40-minute something, so we’ll try to do that.”
Duke (12-4, 1-1 in the ACC) was clicking from start to finish on the offensive end, but its defense allowed 39 points in the first half before buckling down after halftime. All five Blue Devils on the floor slapped the court in unison to signify a renewed sense of commitment on the defensive end coming out of the locker room, and Duke used a stifling 3-2 zone to force 11 turnovers in the third quarter as McCallie's squad outscored the Demon Deacons 34-12 in the frame.
“The first half, they kept on scoring—the same play about three times in a row, and that was my fault. I wasn’t dropping in the back position,” Greenwell said. “We talked about it over halftime and we just knew that we had to buckle down and focus and do we needed to do. We had good leadership out there tonight—everyone was more vocal in the second half and I think that really helped.”
The Blue Devils were opportunistic Thursday, capitalizing on 23 Wake Forest turnovers to generate 27 points, and the Blue Devils played a cleaner game with 18 giveaways after committing 32 against the Orange. Salvadores made two 3-pointers during the big third-quarter run, and Greenwell and Stevens also connected from downtown in the period. The Blue Devils shot 10-of-18 from beyond the arc as Salvadores and Greenwell combined to make nine treys.
Junior forward Oderah Chidom also dominated in the post after the break with 12 second- half points to become Duke’s fourth player in double figures.
Both teams shook off sluggish starts to light up the scoreboard in the first quarter in a fast-paced game. Duke’s first four trips down the court resulted in two turnovers and missed point-blank attempts by Stevens and Greenwell, and Salvadores made the first shot from the field for either team on a running bank shot in the paint more than two minutes into the game. A minute later, the Leon, Spain, native drove baseline and found Greenwell in the right corner for an open 3-pointer. The shot swished through the net to force a Demon Deacon timeout, and Duke’s offense was off and running.
“I played more point guard today than other days, and I like it,” Salvadores said. “I enjoy a lot playing with Azurá, Becca and all the other players because we are really good, so it’s easy for me to play with them.”
Greenwell knocked down three more triples in the quarter and finished the opening frame with 14 points—a program record for scoring in a quarter—but Wake Forest (9-6, 0-2) caught fire from long-range as well to stay in the game early. Amber Campbell, Ariel Stephenson and Elisa Penna each tied the game with 3-pointers, as Penna’s shot beat the buzzer to end the stanza with the teams deadlocked at 25.
The Demon Deacons took their first lead of the game in the early in the second quarter at 29-27 on a jumper by Penna, but the Blue Devils responded with a 12-2 run to seize control. Wake Forest did not go down quietly, rattling off six straight points to trim Duke’s lead to two, but Salvadores came through once again, freezing her defender with a hesitation dribble near midcourt and banking in a floater in the lane to give the Blue Devils a four-point halftime cushion.
Duke made multiple changes to its starting lineup after the blowout loss at Syracuse. Freshman guard Faith Suggs made her first career start and Salvadores started for the first time since the Blue Devils’ Dec. 6 loss against No. 2 South Carolina. The lineup shuffle cost fellow freshman Kyra Lambert her spot in the backcourt, and the point guard came off the bench for the first time in her career.
Suggs punctuated the impressive third quarter with a 3-point play, a welcome sign for McCallie with classmate Haley Gorecki expected to miss an extended period of time with a hip injury.
Graduate student Amber Henson also saw her first game action since beginning a leave of absence from the team Nov. 22. She rejoined the team before the trip to Syracuse and played effective defense in the post in her return, finishing with two blocks and two steals.
“We really missed her. She’s a vocal leader,” McCallie said. “She’ll get more stats as she gets used to playing again. She’s been out of basketball for over a month now, so I just liked getting her leadership—communicating and demanding. It was great to see.”
Duke will continue ACC play on the road against Louisville Sunday afternoon.
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