Part of the grandeur of the NCAA Tournament is that small schools from relatively unknown conferences finally get an opportunity to knock off the giants of the game on a national stage, and for a few moments Saturday, it looked like 15th seed Hampton might just give No. 2 Duke an unexpected opening-round test.
An outmatched Lady Pirates team couldn’t consistently makeup for its shortcomings, however, and the Blue Devils (28-5) advanced to the second round with a 72-37 victory behind a stellar defensive performance.
Hampton (20-12) came out swinging in the early minutes and took advantage of a rattled Duke team in the post by pounding the ball inside. Forward Melanie Warner’s drop-step and finish in the lane over the much bigger Krystal Thomas gave the Lady Pirates a 6-3 advantage, and Hampton held an 8-7 lead through the first TV timeout.
Head coach Joanne P. McCallie countered with freshman forward Allison Vernerey, who scored two quick points off the bench to give Duke a lead it would never again surrender.
“We were all so excited to play that we let our excitement get the best of us [early on],” senior Keturah Jackson said. “We were able to finally settle down and let the game come to us.”
The Lady Pirates were no match for the Blue Devils under the bucket—on average, each starter for Duke was five inches taller than her Hampton counterpart. In the first half, Duke outscored Hampton 22-8 in the paint, and by the end of the game, the differential had ballooned to plus-18.
“If you stood [guard] Bernadette Fortune on [forward] Quanneisha Perry’s shoulders, they might be about seven feet [tall],” Hampton head coach David Six said. “We couldn’t really match up.”
Senior Jasmine Thomas had a sparkling performance on both ends against the Lady Pirates. Defensively, the guard was her usual hard-nosed self and helped stifle the Hampton offense, especially in the first half. With the ball in her hand, Thomas was patient and didn’t force any shots—but the point guard exploded from the field when given the opportunity.
With just over three minutes left in the first period, Thomas came roaring out of a television timeout to extend a 23-3 run that spanned the last 10:13 of the half. After burying a one-handed floater that was enabled by a dazzling spin move in the paint, Thomas connected on consecutive 3-pointers over Duke’s next two possessions and sent the Cameron faithful into a frenzy.
“Everyone was playing off of each other and that allowed me to create and find some space within the game,” Thomas said.
The highlight of the first half—and possibly the season thus far—came with just minutes remaining before the break. Out of a timeout, Thomas lobbed an inbound pass from the sideline to a streaking Karima Christmas, who—in midair—caught the ball at the bucket and coolly laid it in.
“I know the crowd appreciated it, but it’s something that we’ve practiced 100 times,” McCallie said. “I didn’t even have to diagram it in the timeout.”
Duke got great production from some unexpected sources as well. Keturah Jackson—a 44 percent shooter on the season—went 6-for-6 from the field for 13 points, and Bridgette Mitchell added 13 of her own to go along with three blocks and two steals.
Defensively, Duke played to its strengths and relentlessly pressed a helpless Hampton squad. The Blue Devils forced 10 turnovers in the first half alone, allowing for easy points in transition. Combined with Duke’s hot shooting—the Blue Devils shot 45.6 percent for the game—McCallie’s team was able to build enough of an early lead to allow the coach to empty the bench in the second half and rest her starters for the second-round game Monday.
“I thought we had great intensity throughout, we took care of the basketball, we shot the ball well and I thought that we played some pretty good defense,” McCallie said. “It was really great to be back after being gone for several days.”
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