Coming off a demoralizing 22-point loss Thursday in College Park, Md., the Blue Devils returned home with a point to prove.
No. 7 Duke (24-3, 10-2 in the ACC) did just that Sunday afternoon, as head coach Joanne P. McCallie’s team handed Virginia Tech (11-16, 1-11) a 50-point defeat in Cameron Indoor Stadium, winning 90-40. After the difficult loss to Maryland, the dominant performance was encouraging for the Blue Devils.
“I think some of the energy and aggressiveness today was due to Maryland,” freshman Tricia Liston said.
If the loss to Maryland wasn’t enough, Liston and her teammates got an extra dose of adversity just three minutes into the game, as a play under Virginia Tech’s basket left freshman Chelsea Gray grimacing on the floor. Gray had scored Duke’s first four points and had stepped up production in recent games before missing the team’s last game with the flu. She was taken immediately to the locker room.
McCallie was unsurprised at her team’s strong response.
“If any of our players were out, I would expect us to rise,” she said. “I just would expect that to happen.... I have great confidence in our team to score lots of points or defend well regardless.... I just think that you have to be somebody that gets kind of ticked off at that when circumstances don’t go your way. I feel like that’s what happened to us.”
The initial diagnosis for Gray was a left ankle sprain, and McCallie characterized her status as day-to-day pending further examination.
“It’s a bad sprain, and we’re just hopeful that it stays in that category,” McCallie said.
The Hokies made just two of their first eight shots, but those two buckets kept the game close early on. Virginia Tech’s Brittany Gordon tied the game at seven before Duke opened fire with ferocious full-court defense.
In the ensuing eight minutes, the Hokies turned the ball over a remarkable 10 times in 15 possessions while missing all eight of their shots, and Duke bolted out to a 29-7 advantage.
“[The difference was] everybody attacking and getting in gear,” McCallie said. “Early in the game, you never know how the game is going to break. You just have to keep attacking.”
Duke started the run in the paint, as Allison Vernerey and Krystal Thomas each drew fouls and made three of four free throws between them. The Blue Devils’ backcourt also worked hard to attack the rim, and their relentless efforts on the glass kept multiple possessions alive. Their aggressiveness also put them at the free-throw line six times during the run.
As they would do for the remainder of the game, though, they balanced the post attack with a strong perimeter effort. Two Jasmine Thomas 3-pointers and a trey from Liston capped off the 22-0 run.
Duke shot 40 percent in the first half en route to a season-high 45 points in the period, nearly matching their point output from the entirety of its loss to Maryland.
Krystal Thomas’s hustle down low was apparent throughout the afternoon, as she showed soft touch on her hook shot, pulled down numerous rebounds on both ends of the floor and made some excellent passes. She set a career-high with 17 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end.
“We got outrebounded tremendously last game, and it was important to come back and put on a dominating rebounding performance this game,” Thomas said.
The Blue Devils’ smaller Thomas was in fine form as well, as Jasmine’s hustle keyed the intimidating full-court press. She scrapped her way to four of the team’s 19 steals, and added a 3-for-3 performance from beyond the arc in the first half.
She caught fire with her jumpshot in the second half, draining four consecutive shots in a two-minute spurt just after the midpoint of the second half. Thomas’s 27 points were a season-high, and Sunday’s game marked the first time that she has broken the 20-point barrier since mid-January.
“I think I let myself get a little frustrated with my offense the past six weeks,” she said. “I came out today and just relaxed. I missed a lot of layups, but I didn’t let it get to me. I kept attacking, I kept trying to get in the paint, and I think it just got me in a rhythm.”
Liston also chipped in 19 points and six steals off the bench, setting career highs in both categories on her 19th birthday.
McCallie was proud of her team’s effort Sunday, but emphasized that she doesn’t want to have to continue seeing the “strong rebound from a loss” storyline.
“You don’t have to lose to learn,” she said. “You don’t have to lose to attack. You need to be in attack mode all the time. I think this team is beginning to understand that.”
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