After beating a top-ranked team in their season opener and cruising past a weaker opponent two days later, the Blue Devils will take the next logical step in their young season by attempting to find success away from the familiar hardwood of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
No. 6 Duke (2-0) will play its first road game of the season Friday night, taking on Hartford (2-0) in the opening round of the DePaul Invitational in Chicago.
"It seems natural," head coach Joanne P. McCallie said of the team's road trip. "It doesn't seem like we need to be in Cameron right now. It seems like we need to go away and see what we can do."
The Blue Devils will be aided in Chicago by the valuable experience they acquired in their comeback victory over then-No. 14 Oklahoma State to start the season. Down by nine at halftime, Duke opened the second half with a 21-2 run en route to a 77-68 victory. Rarely does a elite program face an opponent of the Cowgirls' caliber this early in the year, and the Blue Devils believe they are better off for it.
"Coach P had told us that the best part of the game was that we saw March in November," junior forward Joy Cheek said. "You'll have games like that in the stretch during the [NCAA] tournament where you're down and you have to come back, so it was a really good teaching lesson for us."
Duke quickly learned a lesson about accountability by playing such a strong opponent and trailing early, McCallie said, and now it knows it must come out of the locker room at game time ready to focus, communicate and attack for the full 40 minutes of play.
The Blue Devils were certainly on the attack against Maine last Sunday, dominating the Black Bears in almost every statistical category. Duke most notably controlled the glass, where it held a 56-17 advantage on the boards, and in fast break points with a 19-2 margin.
Even though Maine is one of the weakest teams the Blue Devils will face all season, McCallie has no doubt in her squad's ability to replicate that same intensity and motivation in future contests.
"It's the low-maintenance nature of this group, the willingness to get better and their chemistry-they don't require a ton of prodding," she said. "There's a really good sense of this 12 being active and everybody trying to get on board."
Perhaps no Blue Devil showed more desire in the first two games than senior center Chante Black. After scoring a career-high 28 points and collecting 10 rebounds against Oklahoma State, she put up 16 points and seven boards versus Maine to become the 24th player in Duke history to score 1,000 career points.
The team's three freshmen-Kathleen Scheer, Shay Selby and Chelsea Hopkins-also played significant minutes against the Black Bears and proved they could be important contributors, combining for 25 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists,
"I think it was a great opportunity for us all," Hopkins said. "Just to be able to get out there and to get that exposure, to get a feel for how it's going to be when we do play those competitive teams. I think that was great for all of us."
However, it remains to be seen whether Duke can continue its dominant performance on the court without the support of home fans and the comfort of well-known surroundings.
On paper, Hartford seems like a worthy opponent for the Blue Devils. The Hawks had their best season in school history last year, posting 28 wins and capturing their third-straight America East Championship.
McCallie knows a victory on the road over Hartford, and then potentially another against either DePaul or Southern in the championship game Saturday, would give her team confidence, but she's more focused on the way in which Duke achieves that result.
"For me, it's more about the process of dominance," she said. "How dominant can Duke be? How tough can we be on that floor? I'm as interested as you are to find out and see what we're going to bring to the table."
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