In her first two career games against South Carolina, All-ACC guard Rebecca Greenwell did not look like herself.
Against All-American Tiffany Mitchell, the sharpshooter went 6-of-18 shooting and had seven turnovers in the two games combined, including a critical giveaway with Duke up 50-49 in the teams’ 2014 meeting that set up the Gamecocks’ final possession and game-winning shot.
Those difficulties against top competition were not unique for Greenwell or her teammates. Since 2014, the Blue Devils had gone 0-11 against top-five teams entering Sunday’s game, with almost all of those losses coming against South Carolina, Notre Dame and Connecticut—teams with the athleticism to force Duke into the costly turnovers that defined its recent struggles as a program.
After the Blue Devils coughed it up 19 times in a close loss at Vanderbilt—a team that lost by more than 30 points at Indiana early in the year—one wondered whether Duke had what it would take to win against a Gamecock team that already had three top-15 wins this year.
Those doubts grew when six Blue Devil turnovers staked South Carolina an early 14-4 lead and first-team All-American forward A’ja Wilson, who had 28 points against Duke last year, picked up right where she left off with nine points in the opening minutes.
But buoyed by their three-guard lineup, the Blue Devils did something they has seemed impossible against a ranked team the past few years. They stopped turning the ball over for more than 10 minutes, turning a 10-point deficit into a 10-point lead late in the second quarter to take control of the game.
“They weren’t happy because we can play certainly a lot better, but I saw a very focused team,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said of the slow start. “We had to reboot a little bit.... There was great poise because it is a marathon. These games are very long and they’re very physical.”
After going more than seven minutes without a field goal to start the contest, Greenwell got herself going on the defensive end—an approach that became infectious for the Blue Devils.
The Owensboro, Ky., native came up with a steal late in the opening period, then went coast-to-coast for a layup. Then after a brief rest on the bench, Greenwell looked like a different player from the one who started Sunday’s game.
As the Duke matchup zone frustrated South Carolina’s defense, the Blue Devils found their rhythm, and junior Lexie Brown fed Greenwell for her first triple of the game early in the second quarter to give the home team a lead it would not surrender.
From that point on, Greenwell looked every bit like one of the best scorers in the nation. After the redshirt junior notched four games of at least 25 points to start the season, she did it again Sunday facing one of the nation’s top programs, using a mix of four 3-pointers and timely drives to the hoop to keep the Gamecock defense off balance.
She finished with 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting and just two turnovers in 37 minutes.
“I really just tried to focus on the defensive side and getting stops and that really pumped me up and then I hit some [3-pointers],” Greenwell said. “Just seeing the post get stops like that, it fueled energy throughout the entire game.”
As impressive as Greenwell was, Duke’s play in the paint might have been even more surprising.
Facing what many consider the nation’s top interior duo in A’ja Wilson and Alaina Coates, the Blue Devils showed much more toughness than they did when Vanderbilt outrebounded them by nine Nov. 20.
Senior Oderah Chidom used her quickness inside to tally 15 points and eight rebounds, and Duke’s zone smothered Wilson and Coates. Despite Wilson’s hot start, the tandem finished with just 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting.
For a frontcourt still adjusting to life without All-American Azurá Stevens—who transferred to Connecticut in the offseason—Sunday’s win was a resolute statement that the Blue Devils are still strong enough in the paint to get back to being a prominent program.
Duke outscored South Carolina 42-32 inside, compensating for a poor shooting day from junior guard Lexie Brown.
Perhaps most importantly, Wilson and Coates had just 11 total rebounds as the Blue Devils avoided giving up back-breaking second-chance points when South Carolina cut the lead to five times multiple times in the second half.
“South Carolina has very good post players—they’re very tall and strong,” McCallie said. “We learned about our interior defense and the things that we can do and grow from, and did a pretty good job with the guards as well for the most part.”
Ironically, Duke was the team that looked more composed and experienced during the defining moments of Sunday’s contest as the Gamecocks look to find their way without Mitchell setting the tone in the backcourt.
That has to be one of the sweetest feelings of all for a Blue Devil team that has dealt with injuries, transfers and even an internal investigation in the years since its last win of this magnitude.
“It just shows that we can play with anyone out there,” Greenwell said. “We knew that from the beginning of the season, but now it’s just showing it to others.”
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