PHILADELPHIA — In Duke’s game last week against 11-seed Marist, head coach Joanne P. McCallie went into the locker room at halftime stressing more aggressive play and physicality.
This time, the two-seeded Blue Devils needed no additional prodding, outrebounding DePaul 43 to 34 en route to a 70-63 victory, propelling Duke to the Elite Eight.
“There was a lot of quickness, a lot of rebounds, and a lot of hustle out there,” McCallie said. “I’m very proud of our team to out-rebound and get after it a little on the boards and attack the lane as much as possible.”
With the help of forward Karima Christmas, the team scored 40 points from inside the paint to the Blue Demons’ 20, amounting to more than half of Duke’s total points. Christmas finished the game with a number of successful driving layups and recorded a team-high 23 points and nine rebounds, just short of a double-double.
“We had no answer for Christmas,” DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said. “We couldn’t guard her, and nothing we tried to do could manage her.”
The senior’s nine rebounds, as well as Haley Peters and Allison Vernerey’s six apiece, gave the Blue Devils multiple opportunities to score from under the basket, resulting in 16 second-chance points.
In addition to Christmas’s strong performance in the paint, the Blue Devils’ offense was heavily aided by its ability to force turnovers—the Blue Demons had 19, with 11 in the first half alone. This gave Duke a definite edge, adding 18 points from offensive turnovers and six from fast break points.
Another element of the Blue Devil offense that helped keep Duke in the lead for the majority of the game was the team’s emphasis on scoring from the inside rather than looking for big shots from outside the arc, like it did last week against the Red Foxes.
“We settled for outside shots in the last game, and we went down in a deficit to Marist, and we wanted to come out in this game and attack from the inside first,” Christmas said. “And, if we had open shots, we could try to shoot them, but we wanted to go inside first.”
And with Duke’s wide array of forwards and centers—including three from off the bench—the ability to have a strong presence inside the post as well as penetrating drives inside the paint will prove crucial in the Blue Devils’ next matchup against perennial powerhouse Connecticut, who, with Maya Moore, will contest every point from the inside.
“Connecticut is obviously a very good team, but that’s how we focus,” McCallie said. “Hopefully we can do a bit better job... continu[ing] to rebound and attack the lane like we did in this game.”
If the Blue Devils do indeed churn out impressive numbers from inside the key again, they could be looking at a huge upset over the Huskies.
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