Fighting for its NCAA tournament life, Duke may get a big boost at the ACC tournament with its best player back on the court.
Sophomore forward Azurá Stevens has missed seven straight games recovering from a partially torn plantar fascia in her left foot but went through warm-ups before the Blue Devils’ regular-season finale against North Carolina, giving Duke hope that she will take the floor in the first round of the ACC tournament.
The eighth-seeded Blue Devils will take on No. 9 seed Virginia at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday at 2 p.m., looking to start a successful run through the postseason with Stevens back in tow after a disappointing regular season derailed by injuries.
“It’s feeling better, I’ve just been rehabbing like crazy and trying to get back as soon as I can,” Stevens said. “I’ve been trying to strengthen up my ankle and make other areas strong, so when I do come back it’s not like I’m all rusty.”
Stevens was named a first-team All-ACC selection Tuesday after only playing in nine conference games, but it seemed like Duke would not miss a beat in its first game without her.
The Blue Devils (19-11) cruised to a 67-52 win Feb. 4 against the Cavaliers (16-14), with redshirt sophomore Rebecca Greenwell tallying 25 points and 12 boards to post her first double-double of the season. But they lost four of their next five games and failed to reach 60 points in each of the defeats as opposing defenses keyed in on Greenwell.
Without Stevens’ presence in the frontcourt, Duke’s other post players stepped up, and the team was firing on all cylinders in the 93-57 rout of the Tar Heels. Junior Oderah Chidom poured in a career-high 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, graduate student Amber Henson added eight points and 10 boards and sophomore Erin Mathias scored a season-high eight points off the bench to help the Blue Devils outscore North Carolina 52-10 in the paint.
“I’ve seen just a lot of different people step up in different ways,” Stevens said. “[It’s] not one person necessarily trying to shoulder everything, but Becca getting more rebounds, being more aggressive in that way, Oderah scoring a lot more, Angela [Salvadores] and Kyra [Lambert] and others just stepping up and really trying to come together collectively as a team.”
Virginia’s tallest starter is 6-foot-2, and Duke doubled up the Cavaliers on the boards without Stevens to finish with a 44-22 rebounding advantage. If the Blue Devils can reincorporate the 6-foot-6 forward into the offense Thursday, their interior dominance could stand out even more.
With the newfound emergence of more post threats, Duke could also use Stevens as the small forward in a big lineup with either Chidom or Henson on the floor at the same time. The Raleigh native would create matchup nightmares on the perimeter, either by shooting from downtown—where she has made 16 3-pointers this season—or by feeding her teammates for easy looks over shorter defenders.
“Azurá will play her game smartly. She’ll play from the inside-out, meaning she’ll try to attack that paint area and get herself comfortable again,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “There’s no doubt there’ll be a process, there’s no doubt there are going to be conditioning issues and things of that nature, but we’ll just work with it.”
The Blue Devils may get their star back for Thursday’s showdown, but the Cavaliers were also shorthanded for their loss in Durham. Senior guard Faith Randolph did not play against Duke due to a broken thumb, but returned for the last five games to help Virginia finish the regular season with three wins in five tries.
With Randolph out of the lineup, the Cavaliers went just 2-7, but their record in conference play jumped to 4-3 when she was healthy. The Derwood, Md., native leads the team with 3.1 assists per game and also averages 12.8 points per game to supplement sophomore Mikayla Venson’s 15.4 points per contest.
“[Randolph] gives them more guard depth, obviously—another 3-point shooter and scoring threat. She and Vinson are really good,” McCallie said. “Out of the 52 points they scored against Virginia Tech, 44 were guard points, so they’re very guard-dominated.”
Virginia has integrated Randolph back into the lineup seamlessly since her return, and Duke can only hope to replicate that immediate improvement with Stevens this week. At the same time, the Blue Devils face a long week in Greensboro if they keep winning—with a rematch with the top-seeded Fighting Irish looming Friday—which would put stress on Stevens’ still-recovering foot.
Stevens still has not been fully practicing, but her mere presence on the floor could spark the Blue Devils to a strong start in Greensboro, much like it did when she warmed up prior to Sunday’s contest in Chapel Hill.
“We thought she was going to play. We thought it was 100 percent and that she might even start, but then we ended up not even needing her,” Greenwell said. “It just got everyone excited and I think her just warming up might have spooked the other team. Even though she didn’t play, she definitely helped us out overall.”
Ryan Hoerger contributed reporting.
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