After cruising to two road wins to start the season, Duke will finally play in front of its home crowd in Durham.
The No. 7 Blue Devils will open their home slate at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Marquette Sunday at 2 p.m. The contest against the Golden Eagles marks the start of a three-game home-stand before the Blue Devils travel to face No. 5 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, Nov. 30.
The Blue Devils are coming off an 82-66 victory against Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va., Thursday night. Senior Ka’lia Johnson led the way against the Lady Monarchs, tallying 18 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds—career-highs in both points and assists. Johnson's performance was the first triple-double for the Blue Devils since Chelsea Gray's achieved the feat in January 2013.
Just the seventh triple-double In Duke history, the Blue Devils will look for more high-caliber play from the Chester, Va., native going forward.
“Honestly, a triple-double in November surprises me,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “I didn’t think that was something that would happen early like this.”
That surprise is a gift that McCallie hopes will keep on giving as the season progresses. The Blue Devils (2-0) will need their senior leaders, Johnson and Elizabeth Williams, to produce against a young Marquette team that is eager to prove itself under first-year head coach Carolyn Kieger, back in Milwaukee at the helm of her alma mater.
The Golden Eagles (2-0) are lead by senior Arlesia Morse, who has become the floor general after All-Big East point guard Katherine Plouffe graduated last spring. Morse averaged 11.5 points per contest last season playing behind Plouffe and is scoring at an 18.7-point-per-game clip early in this year's campaign. She is joined in the starting lineup by freshman guards Tia Elbert and Kenisha Bell. Providing a post presence are centers Chelsie Butler at 6-foot-5 and Lauren Tibbs at 6-foot-4, as well as forward Apiew Ojulu at 6-foot-3. The trio should provide a challenge down low for Williams and Amber Henson on both ends of the court.
“[Marquette’s] guards are a lot like Old Dominion’s,” McCallie said. “They are very athletic, they have this very fast and athletic two-guard [Bell] and a quick point guard [Elbert]. They are all pretty good 3-point shooters across the board. So [Marquette] has two big posts and a bunch of attacking guards that distribute around them.”
The Lady Monarch post players gave Duke issues Thursday, so limiting the effectiveiness of Tibbs and Ojulu will be a big part of the Blue Devils' game plan. The matchup will be a test for Duke's younger starters, Rebecca Greenwell and Sierra Calhoun.
“I’m excited. It’s going to test us a little bit in our perimeter defense and containing number fifteen [Bell],” McCallie said. “It will shore up our post defense and hopefully we can get to the free-throw line and attack their post more.”
Henson will have to play solid post defense and the Blue Devils will look for Johnson and Williams to lead the scoring in their home opener. They will look to keep improving as a team before they embark on a grueling two-game road trip in which they play Texas A&M and Nebraska before returning home to face South Carolina—all teams ranked comfortably inside the AP top 25.
“We have to get better, and these games give us more experience,” McCallie said. “The only way to prepare for a road trip is to treat every game singularly and to just kill the game and do the best you can with it in every way. Nothing is automatic.”
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