Last chance for marquee win awaits Duke women's basketball as No. 10 Florida State comes calling

The Blue Devils will award $1,000 to the craziest student fan Thursday

<p>After a career-high 18-point outing Sunday at Miami, junior Oderah Chidom will look to keep things going Thursday against No. 10 Florida State’s imposing frontcourt.</p>

After a career-high 18-point outing Sunday at Miami, junior Oderah Chidom will look to keep things going Thursday against No. 10 Florida State’s imposing frontcourt.

With another $1,000 on the line, the Blue Devils are looking to feed off of a tenacious home crowd as they aim to knock off their first ranked opponent of the year.

Lacking a signature win, Duke will take on No. 10 Florida State Thursday at 7 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Seminoles are the last ranked team left on the Blue Devils’ schedule for the regular season, and with the team’s strongest win coming at Pennsylvania in the season-opener Nov. 14, Duke still has work to do to pad its resume in order to secure a NCAA tournament bid.

“We want to go after Florida State—they’re an excellent team, but it’s still about us. We have to outrebound opponents and we have to contest shooters better,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We want to beat everyone on our schedule and you have to make people quit. You have to break teams. You have to make it so intense that you have to break teams, and we have to learn how to do that.”

But the Blue Devils (17-8, 6-5 in the ACC) are expected to be short-handed once again, as star Azurá Stevens—the team’s leading scorer and rebounder—has missed her last two games with a partial plantar fascia tear in her left foot.

In Sunday’s 61-53 loss at then-No. 16 Miami, Stevens’ offensive abilities were dearly missed, as Duke only mustered two points in the second quarter and missed 25 consecutive field goal attempts. Although the Blue Devils got back on track offensively with a 25-point third quarter, it was not enough to overcome a 16-point halftime deficit.

Duke has had its chances to make a statement, but sports an 0-6 record against top-25 teams. Late in games, the Blue Devils’ inexperience has been costly—Duke played No. 2 South Carolina close into the fourth quarter on the road, took No. 15 Texas A&M to overtime and dropped a 10-point contest at No. 8 Kentucky. McCallie’s squad had No. 3 Notre Dame on the ropes Feb. 1, but a five-point lead evaporated behind a 13-0 Fighting Irish run late in the game.

The Blue Devils will get one more chance to upset a quality opponent, so to create an intimidating atmosphere, Duke is offering $1,000 to the “craziest” student. McCallie offered a $1,000 reward against Army Nov. 22—a 72-61 Blue Devil win.

Monetary giveaway or not, McCallie’s squad has been better in the comfy confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium this season, entering Thursday’s matchup boasting an 11-3 home record, with two of the three losses coming against ranked opponents. Guard Rebecca Greenwell—who has shouldered the majority of the scoring burden offensively without Stevens—averages 17.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game and shoots 48.8 percent from 3-point range on Coach K Court compared to 10.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 32.1 percent 3-point shooting on the road.

Freshman Angela Salvadores has also been much better at home despite her injury-riddled season. The Leon, Spain, native has registered 10.1 points and 3.8 assists per contest in Durham, and played a large role in the team’s 67-52 victory against Virginia Feb. 4 in Stevens’ first missed contest of the year.

But Florida State (19-4, 9-1) boasts one of the conference’s most efficient and well-balanced offenses, as four Seminoles average at least 10.0 points per game.

Do-it-all point guard Brittany Brown leads the offensive charge for Florida State, as she enters the contest averaging 10.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and nearly five assists per game. Brown is a former AAU teammate of Duke freshman Crystal Primm, which could prove helpful, especially since the Blue Devils have switched into a primarily man-to-man defensive scheme with Stevens on the sidelines.

“[Florida State has] been really talented, out of control offensively…. We just have to break their momentum, just play great possession basketball and defend a lot of very good players,” McCallie said. “We’re going to try to keep them off balance, but they definitely have a lot of offense, and we’re going to have to slow them down. Their transition game is really the key. They just fly in transition, so we’ve really got to get back.”

The Blue Devils will look to forward Oderah Chidom to help shoulder Stevens’ production on offense, as the Oakland, Calif., native is coming off a career-high 18 points against the Hurricanes. Chidom will also have a tough defensive assignment, as she will be tasked with shutting down the Seminoles’ top two scorers, forwards Shakayla Thomas and Adut Bulgak, who combine to average 30.6 points per game in the post.

Fighting for a tournament berth come Selection Monday likely without its star player, Duke will have to find a way to knock off one of the top teams in the country.

“Azurá’s a big part of our offense. Not having Azurá means that we have to tighten up on defense and make sure we’re playing our game,” Chidom said. “We have so many offensive threats. Everyone just can’t step outside of themselves and people just need to step up.”

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