NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Coming off its 82-47 drubbing of Samford in the opening round of the NCAA tournament Sunday, Duke will face Vanderbilt in a second round matchup Tuesday night.
The second-seeded Blue Devils will go up against the seventh-seeded Commodores in the unique confines of Memorial Gymnasium, Vanderbilt’s home court in Nashville, Tenn. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 p.m.
“We like to get that Memorial Madness going,” Commodores’ sophomore center Stephanie Holzer said. “We like to play at home and we’re comfortable here. It gives us a little confidence boost, especially when the game is tight.”
Vanderbilt’s home crowd helped the Commodores overcome 10th-seeded Middle Tennessee Sunday night in their opening-round game, in which they never trailed the Blue Raiders. Sophomore guard Jasmine Lister scored 19 points and dished out five assists, and Holzer went for nine points and 10 boards.
Although she shot just 3-for-14 against Middle Tennessee, SEC leading scorer Christina Foggie is the Commodores most dangerous offensive threat. The sophomore guard averages 17.5 points per game and shoots over 41 percent from 3-point range.
“They are a high-powered scoring machine,” Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “What [Foggie] has done, and the kind of year she has had is remarkable when you look at where she was last year to this year. We cannot stop her, but you try very hard to make things more difficult, so that’s a good place to start.”
The Commodores boast the nation’s sixth-highest shooting percentage at 46.4 percent, while holding their opponents to just 36.8 percent shooting. Foggie and Lister combine to attempt just over 10 3-pointers per game, and they shoot at clips of 41.2 and 34.6 percent, respectively.
Duke’s length on the perimeter proved effective against Samford—limiting the Bulldogs to 7-for-25 shooting from 3-point range—but Vanderbilt will bring a much more balanced attack offensively, challenging the Blue Devils’ defense both in the paint and from beyond the arc.
“They have all spots filled,” McCallie said. “I’m not sure that they have a weakness—maybe that they don’t go 12 deep, but neither do we. I think they are an excellent team.”
Commodores’ head coach Melanie Balcomb, now in her 10th year in Nashville, seemed more concerned with Duke’s defensive prowess than its weapons on the offensive end.
“I am very familiar with it,” Balcomb said of McCallie’s defensive system. “I have coached against it. Now she uses length like Tennessee and LSU did against us this year. She is a very, very good coach defensively.”
Blue Devil freshman Ka’lia Johnson has provided McCallie with a valuable role player to keep her defense fresh in recent weeks, especially in implementing an aggressive and effective full-court press against Samford.
With ACC rookie of the year Elizabeth Williams suffering from a stress fracture in her right leg and potentially seeing less playing time than usual, Johnson and others on McCallie’s bench will have to step up and provide minutes to sustain the aggressiveness of Duke’s defense. Senior Kathleen Scheer and junior Allison Vernerey spelled Williams effectively against the Bulldogs and will most likely see extended minutes against the Commodores as well.
Although McCallie touted Vanderbilt—especially its offensive capabilities—in Monday’s press conference, she stayed positive about the challenge of playing as a No. 2 seed on the road.
“Nothing is fair in love and war,” McCallie said. “I’m really not concerned where we play, or when we play, but just that we play and play some great basketball.”
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