All signs pointed to another Duke blowout as the Blue Devils started their final exhibition game Sunday afternoon against Lander.
And No. 8 Duke remained firmly in the driver’s seat for the entirety of the game, topping the Bearcats 79-52.
The Blue Devils’ victory over Lander—a small Division-II school located in Greenwood, S.C.—was their final tune-up of the preseason, and it provided Duke with a far more demanding test than Pfeiffer did in their previous exhibition game. Sophomores Chloe Wells and Chelsea Gray led the Blue Devils with 18 points each, followed closely by freshman Elizabeth Williams with 17.
“I thought Chelsea [Gray] and Chloe [Wells] were attacking and learning to get the team in order,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I thought their production was very, very important to us today.”
The Blue Devils started hot, establishing a 15-4 lead over the Bearcats in the first four minutes, and never looked back—Lander never came within eight points for the rest of the game.
Duke enjoyed a height advantage in nearly every matchup against a Bearcats squad that did not play anyone over six feet. Lander head coach Kevin Pederson singled out the 6-foot-3 Williams for the offensive threat she posed.
“That kid is something special,” Pederson said. “There was nothing we could do. She is so talented, she is smart, she plays under control, you don’t frustrate her very much—we had no answer for her.”
In addition to her 17 points, Williams added five blocks, including two monster rejections on one Lander possession, the second drawing the loudest reaction from the crowd all game. Sophomore Haley Peters, also 6-foot-3, grabbed 11 rebounds over undersized Bearcats to lead the game in boards.
Duke also benefited from the superb play of Gray and Wells, who each nailed two threes and contributed to the Blue Devils’ 30 points off turnovers. McCallie plans to utilize both at point guard, leaving the decision of who brings the ball up the court to the players.
Wells, who averaged just 3.5 points last year, will take on a larger role following the departure of last year’s leading scorer, Jasmine Thomas. In the offseason, she worked on her aggressiveness and making her teammates better in preparation for taking over Thomas’s staring job.
“All of those minutes she was playing, I was watching,” Wells said. “I paid attention and I learned a lot from [Thomas], so I’m taking it all pretty well.”
The fast pace of the game did lead to some undisciplined play by Duke, though. While forcing 30 turnovers, the Blue Devils had 19 turnovers of their own. Both teams employed a press for stretches of the game and the pressure resulted in forced passes by both teams.
With 16 more rebounds, five more steals and 10 more blocks than Lander, the Blue Devils dominated in nearly every defensive category. One glaring exception was their three-point defense. Duke allowed Lander senior Jasmine Judge to hit eight threes—what would be the highest single-game total in Cameron Indoor Stadium regular-season history—on only 10 attempts. While the record will not count due to the exhibition status of the game, the significance was not lost on McCallie.
“That is painful,” she said. “It counts to us, but that’s alright. We’ll learn from it.”
In playing all but one player and employing a variety of defensive schemes, McCallie made it clear that she considered the exhibition a chance to fine-tune her team as the Blue Devils prepare to open the regular season against Brigham Young next Friday in Provo, Utah.
“It was a good day for us to learn, to get better and play hard,” McCallie said. “Every day we work to get better.”
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