After avenging two of their 2015-16 losses in December, the Blue Devils hope to ring in the new year by continuing their revenge tour in their ACC opener.
No. 15 Duke will host No. 8 Louisville Monday night at 7 p.m. at Cameron indoor Stadium in a matchup of two of the hottest teams in the country. Neither the Blue Devils nor Cardinals have lost since Dec. 1—the teams have combined for 12 wins in that span—and both teams recently notched a quality win against No. 17 Kentucky.
In their 69-54 win against the Wildcats Thursday, the Blue Devils played Kentucky even for much of the game before pulling away with a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter. But against a team led by sophomore guard Asia Durr, whose 3.7 3-pointers per game rank fifth in the nation and account for more than half of her 18.5 points per contest, Duke hopes to display more consistency.
“The key is for us to get better from the last game, and what I mean by that is we really played one quarter well and that was the fourth quarter,” Blue Devil head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We’d like to really see if we can be a little bit more consistent each quarter and grow our game a little bit.”
Consistency for the Blue Devils (12-1) Monday will likely come down to one factor—rebounding.
Duke has utilized its speed during its eight-game winning streak, with freshman forward Leaonna Odom and senior post Oderah Chidom giving the Blue Devils a great deal of mobility inside. But against a starting lineup that features three physical options inside in ACC Player of the Year Myisha Hines-Allen, first-team All-ACC forward Mariya Moore and redshirt senior Cortnee Walton, Duke might have to change its strategy.
Reserves Kendall Cooper—who started inside to begin the year— and Erin Mathias have also played well on the interior, and McCallie might opt for a more traditional big lineup with two post players to shut down the vaunted Cardinal frontcourt. Against the Wildcats Thursday, Cooper and Mathias combined for 14 points and eight rebounds.
After struggling inside in their only loss of the season at Vanderbilt Nov. 20, the Blue Devils have made controlling the paint a strength, including in their upset of then-No. 3 South Carolina Dec. 3. Knocking off a team with what many think is the nation's best frontcourt should give Duke confidence heading into ACC play—as should the fact that the Gamecocks beat Louisville (13-2, 1-0 in the ACC) by 24 points earlier this year.
“Rebounding tends to be everything,” McCallie said. “Rebounding needs to be really good because of Hines-Allen, Moore, and Walton, and obviously our location and shot contesting is a huge issue.”
The scintillating matchups extend to the backcourt, where Durr leads the Cardinals to take on two of the best guards in the nation in Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown. Both players average more than 17 points per game and shoot better than 39 percent from 3-point range, meaning Monday's game could feature a number of fireworks.
Brown has also made her mark on the defensive end with 2.9 steals per game, and will likely get the tough assignment of slowing down Durr when Duke utilizes its man-to-man defense. Durr is coming off a 36-point effort, including making 7-of-12 3-pointers, in Louisville's 91-76 win against No. 25 Syracuse to open its ACC slate.
Her proficiency from long range will test the Blue Devils' patented matchup zone defense, which can smother opponents with length but has also left long-range shooters open at times this year.
“Team defense is so important and I think when our team really gets locked in, we have a chance to play different defenses,” McCallie said. “We’ve got to take care of the one-on-one stops and some of the fundamental issues, so I think the team is starting to jell defensively. Earlier in the season, we didn’t really have any kind of a defensive identity, and I think that has really developed, and that is something we’ve got to continue to build on.”
Duke's defensive success depends on its ability to take care of the ball on offense—an area the Blue Devils have to improve after coughing it up 21 times Thursday. Chidom and Greenwell had 12 of these giveaways.
Last season, Duke was unable to break Louisville's press without turning it over—22 giveaways led to an ugly 65-48 loss. The point total was the Blue Devils' lowest since January 2012.
With Brown, Greenwell and sophomore Kyra Lambert handling the ball this year, Duke has been able to avoid damaging giveaways in crucial situations, but that ability will be tested on another big stage Monday.
“We’re maximizing everybody. Obviously Becca and Lexie are very talented players, so maximizing them might mean 25 [points] a game.” McCallie said. “I don’t know what the number is, but we want to maximize everybody. When [Lambert] can be aggressive and get on the free-throw line and go to the rack and get fouled, the three guards together become very difficult to guard.”
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